Microsoft has significant ambitions in entering the decentralized data processing space.
Written by: Bright, Foresight News
On the evening of May 20, it was reported that Microsoft is integrating new blockchain data sources into its Fabric analytics platform through collaboration with the crypto startup Space and Time Labs (SXT). Space and Time will provide Fabric users with 'real-time, verifiable' data sources for Bitcoin, Sui, and Ethereum on the Microsoft Azure OneLake platform, which is a 'data OneDrive' providing a single cloud storage account.
Space and Time (SXT) is a decentralized database project based on zero-knowledge proofs (ZK), aimed at solving the data processing challenges of blockchain smart contracts. Its core technology is the Proof of SQL protocol, which allows for the unified storage of diverse data from on-chain (like Ethereum, Bitcoin) and off-chain (like traditional databases, IoT data) into SQL-compatible structured tables, allowing developers to query data using standard SQL statements and generate zero-knowledge proofs to verify the correctness and completeness of results.
SXT has received investment from Microsoft's M12 fund twice (leading a $20 million investment in 2022 and participating in a $20 million Series A round in 2024) and collaborates with platforms like Binance and Chainlink, launching on Binance Launchpool and Binance Alpha in May 2025, and conducting airdrops for Chainlink stakers and Binance Alpha users.
Solving on-chain, bridging to reality.
Currently, blockchain smart contracts face four major data dilemmas: difficulty in obtaining cross-chain data, lack of tools for complex queries, slow ZK proof speeds, and centralized risks in oracles. The veteran decentralized data indexing protocol The Graph (GRT) focuses on solving the query efficiency of on-chain data. It incentivizes nodes (indexers) to extract and structure raw data (like transactions, contract events) from public chains such as Ethereum and Polygon into queryable API interfaces (Subgraphs), allowing developers to quickly access on-chain information through GraphQL. However, the limitations of its functional boundaries are quite real: it only supports on-chain data, does not involve off-chain or cross-chain integration, and lacks an encryption verification mechanism for query results, relying on economic constraints of nodes for data credibility.
The SXT chain, centered around the Proof of SQL protocol, solves some blockchain-native data processing problems and also introduces the capability for processing real-world data:
For example, sub-second ZK proofs. STX supports standard SQL syntax (JOIN, GROUP BY, time-series analysis, etc.), can handle cross-chain data associations (like 'total staking amount of address A across ETH/BSC/zkSync') and historical trend analysis (like 'reasons for the fluctuations in trading volume of a certain DEX in the past 30 days'), and announces the adoption of GPU acceleration, generating corresponding zk-SNARK proofs in 'sub-second' time, which is far superior to the dozens of seconds required by traditional zkVM generation. Moreover, STX also supports 100GB level data queries, achieving 'sub-second verification of on-chain data.'
Moreover, SQL query freedom. STX converts on-chain data from Ethereum, Bitcoin, etc., into SQL-compatible table structures and also supports the integration of off-chain data sources (SQL databases, APIs, IoT streams) and cross-chain integration. For example, it can synchronize the off-chain sales data of a company with on-chain transaction records, forming a unified dataset. Developers can directly use SQL statements to query historical transactions, cross-chain assets, and other complex data without relying on centralized oracles.
Additionally, the three-layer node architecture of STX has its clever design. Indexing nodes extract data from mainstream public chains and store it in a structured manner, staking SXT ensures data authenticity, with penalties for malicious behavior resulting in token confiscation; proof nodes handle query requests and generate ZK proofs, with performance being an 'order of magnitude breakthrough' compared to traditional solutions; validators maintain data immutability through BFT consensus, ensuring that on-chain commitments are consistent with underlying data.
Microsoft investment, diverse applications
The emergence of the SXT chain once again meets the imagination of diverse application scenarios. Perhaps this is also the reason why SXT continuously receives investments from Microsoft's M12 fund (leading a $20 million investment in 2022 and participating in a $20 million Series A round in 2024).
In the DeFi space, users' multi-chain asset dynamics can be analyzed in real-time to adjust lending rates or integrate user assets with protocol health data for complex derivatives support; in enterprise scenarios, institutions like FTI Consulting use it to generate tamper-proof audit reports to meet SEC and other regulatory requirements, while industries with strong audit needs like IoT can leverage SXT to further ensure data integrity; in the AI field, it can combine on-chain data with Azure OpenAI to train trustworthy models, such as intelligent trading bots predicting market trends. In the blockchain gaming scenario, off-chain game events can be imported into SXT with ZK proofs sent to NFT smart contracts, achieving on-chain attribute evolution (levels, skins, rewards). Game studios can analyze player behavior and item economics across chains without relying on centralized data storage.
Moreover, the imagination of monetizing data on the blockchain is more likely to become a reality. When a dataset is queried, the publishing entity can receive SXT token rewards. This also encourages multiple parties to jointly contribute and query shared data, creating favorable conditions for establishing a trustless database alliance.
In terms of token economics, more than 50% of the total supply of 5 billion $SXT belongs to the community, used to incentivize node staking, data provision, and developer ecosystems. Stakers can obtain annualized returns, and data publishers can share in profits based on query volume.
Despite facing challenges in technology implementation and regulatory compliance, the SXT chain, backed by Microsoft and supported by Chainlink, hopes to become a core layer of Web3 data infrastructure with its differentiated positioning of 'trusted data + SQL queries', pushing blockchain from financial applications to enterprise-level data services.
