Space and Time (Chain)

December 12, 2024

Overview

Space and Time is the verifiable compute layer for AI and blockchain, with patented Proof of SQL technology. Space and Time are working to make smart contracts smarter, enabling them to ask questions with ZK proven queries. Space and Time allows developers to connect analytics directly to smart contracts and build data-driven smart contracts powered by Proof of SQL, the first sub-second ZK coprocessor that enables trustless data processing at scale. Also, Space and Time were part of the Chainlink Build Program. Space and Time have their own chain, currently in testnet and will launch mainnet of their ZK Sync ZK roll up in 2025. Space and Time will be a DePIN with users able to contribute to the network by running indexers from their PC.

Space and time indexes multi-chain blockchain data to provide on and offchain data in one query. Space and Time uses blockchain technology to ensure the data provided is tamperproof and fast. SxT provide sub second queries and enterprise grade analytics.

Space and Time was co-founded by Nate Holiday and Scott Dykstra in 2022. They have raised a total of $50 million, with their most recent $20million round shown below.

Space and Time most recent funding round [1]

Proof of SQL (PoSQL)

They have a patented PoSQL which provides a cryptographic guarantee of data being tamperproof. This solves a Web2 and Web3 issue, of users having to trust (not verify), that centralised providers have not tampered with the data.

Zero Knowledge

PoSQL is a zkSNARK specific for a database. The use cases include scaling DeFi protocols and onchain games. But how does this work? A smart contract sends a payment and querry request to the Space and Time end point contract. This emits an event onchain, then the nodes coordinate to assign query jobs. The prover sends back the querry results, with the ZK proof and a threshold signed commitment. The trustless querry result is then delivered to the requester.

Smart Contract & AI Innovators

The development of Smart Contracts enabled Ethereum to pioneer the development of decentralised applications (dApps). But, until now they had been limited. Space and Time are innovating in smart contract execution. Space and Time are “making smart contracts smarter”.

Smart Contract AI Agents

The future of AI agents is interesting to imagine. Space and Time have the resources to enable Smart Contract AI Agents to use smart contracts to call on and offchain data, before making their own trading decisions. Space and Time are backed by Microsoft’s M12 Ventures and are co-engineering with Azure’s engineers to build a relayer to bring GPT-5 onchain. Space and Time's AI chat bot (Houston) is powered by Open AI and allows users to generate SQL queries and dashboards.

My previous blog on the Future of Work, Depins & AI agents is available to read.

Verifiable LLMs

Verifiable LLMs refers to the ability to cryptographically prove and reproduce the processes involved in creating and using LLMs. This also ensures the dataset used to train the LLM is tamperproof.

Space and Time’s Verifiable LLMs [4]

Space and Tokens

Space and Time aquired Cenit Finance, to provide tokenomics simulation and analytics services [5]. The platform is powered by Space and Time’s verified onchain data. This will compliment Space and Time’s no code AI studio [6].

Security

Space and Time uses Asymmetrical Encryption, the public and private keys validated authentication and authorisation requests.

But how does this work? A user authenticates with Space and Time by accessing the Space and Time APIs. The user requests a Challenge tied to their username which is random generated after a Challenge. The Challenge is encrypted by the users private key and produces a  signature which is verired by the Platform. The Platform then provides an access token to the user, Json Web Tokens (JWTs) are bearer tokens used in APIs. Once set up the user only needs to provide the access token and doesn't need a signature for every request.

Wallet Support and Authentication

Space and Time supports the Ethereum wallet based authentication (web app) and the developer focussed ED2519. To authorise requests, bearer tokens are used, but biscuits instead of JWTs (access tokens). Biscuits are authorisation tokens used for decentralised verification, offline creation and a payload based on logic language. Users are able to customise access control.

Data as a resource

The data resource has a public and private key associated with it. A user creates a table, provide the public key and generate biscuits with the private key. They also set the access control configuration they want. The Biscuit is verified with public key. This allows users to create a locked table that anyone can read from, but only they can write. They have a platform managed encryption solution allowing users to encrypt data in tapreserving encryption, so that the encrypted and unencrypted data is not obvious to bad actors.

Industry Standards

Space and Time uses a Hydro Transaction engine. A HTap is “an analytic processing engine, to refer to the querry engine employed by the Space and Time data warehouse”. This allows them to be an end to end provider. For workload management, SxT uses Kubrenties (a Web2 Workhorse Solution). This gives them the primitives necessary for Web3 needs, with the familiarity that Enterprise Customers are used to.

Types of Queries

A transactional querry allows near real time operations of, reads (looking up single data point, such as a wallet address in 150 miliseconds) or writes (modifying data point). This query is optimised for real time applications, not for analytics.

An analytical query allows you to analyse data, such as calculating Averages of thousands of rows.

Community Operated - DePIN

The current data warehouse industry is centralised. Space and Time is aiming to decentralise the industry. Space and Time has a network of indexers, these nodes achieve consensus by verifying that indexing was done correctly. The data is committed to by adding a cryptographic proof. The data is organised, so it's ready to be connected to smart contracts and PoSQL. This decentralised network reduces the CapEx and OpEx challenges of setting up global data warehouses. Community members willdecentralise the network by running indexers on their PC.

Space and Time Chain

Space and Time chain was announced on 30th October 2024 as ‘“the blockchain for ZK proven data” [2]. This rollup will be part of ZK Sync's Elastic Chain, enabling the deployment of smart contracts for DeFi applications.

Space and Time Chain [2]

Space and Time’s Partnerships

Space and Time have a number of different partnerships. They are partnered with Microsoft, Nvidia and Chainlink for compute infrastructure. In addition to Avalanche, Sui, Polygon and ZK Sync on Smart Contract Enablement.

Space and Time were part of the Chainlink Build program. Their co-founder Nate Holiday used to advise Chainlink. They use Chainlink oracles to pull data and are integrated with Chainlink functions. The data is processed offchain, for minimal fees & high throughput. It is then transmitted by a validation layer. The validated data is sent back onchain to smart contracts. The app that requested the data can then see the results and verification from Space and Time.

ZK Sync Coprocessor

Space and Time are a Zk sync Coprocessor. Space and Time use ZK proofs and MPC to handle resource intensive computations. In the execution environment, this allows them to querry onchain and offchain data in one querry. This enables real time Data Availability (DA). Sub second ZK proofs enable faster transaction confirmations and Settlement. Space and Time Chain will be a ZK Sync ZK Rollup too.

The future of Space and Time is one I'm excited for!

References