1. Project Overview
Space and Time is a web3 native decentralized data platform that supports low-latency queries and tamper-proof analysis across Web3. Dapps built on Space and Time become interoperable on the blockchain, handling SQL + machine learning for game/DeFi data and any decentralized applications that require verifiable tamper-proof and blockchain security at enterprise scale.
2. Product Details
(1) Technical Architecture
Space and Time (SxT) adopts a decentralized data warehouse architecture that combines blockchain and traditional database technology, with the core innovation being its 'Proof of SQL' zero-knowledge coprocessor. In the SxT network, data is jointly maintained by participating nodes (index nodes and consensus nodes). When data is written, the validation node (Verifier) first generates a commitment to lock the newly added data, which is then stored in the index node. Nodes generate a global commitment in the form of threshold signatures through Byzantine fault-tolerant consensus to ensure that the data state held by each node is consistent and tamper-proof. At any moment, nodes can verify the correctness of query results through zero-knowledge proofs without repeated calculations. In short, the SxT network generates a 'digital fingerprint' for the current state of each table, ensuring that the data and computation results obtained by smart contracts from this platform are authentic and reliable.
SxT also provides a complete security and privacy protection mechanism. Its encryption technology in the database ensures that sensitive data is encrypted by clients before entering the SxT cluster, and the data remains encrypted throughout the storage and computing process, never existing in plaintext form in node memory. This type of database-level encryption differs from traditional disk encryption; even in the event of an attack, nodes cannot decrypt the data. Through collaboration with Sotero, SxT can achieve complete operations on encrypted data without losing query functionality, thereby maximizing data privacy protection. Additionally, zero-knowledge proofs themselves provide guarantees for privacy—verifiers can confirm that query results are tamper-proof without needing to understand the sensitive content of the data itself.
The SxT architecture is deeply integrated with mainstream blockchain ecosystems. At its core is an SXT public chain based on Substrate, used to coordinate the staking, consensus, and on-chain verification of zero-knowledge proofs for validation nodes. Verified query results can be written back to smart contracts through oracles like Chainlink, making on-chain business operations more efficient. Currently, SxT has pre-indexed and supports data from multiple mainstream public chains, including Ethereum, Bitcoin, Polygon, zkSync, Sui, Sei, BNB Chain, Avalanche, etc. Developers can access and associate data from these chains simultaneously on a unified SQL layer. Users can initiate queries through a web interface or API, or embed queries in smart contracts, with all results receiving cryptographic guarantees via Proof of SQL.
(2) Business Model and Target Customer Group
The core service of SxT is a one-stop decentralized data warehouse and query platform that provides developers and enterprises with high-speed on-chain/off-chain data querying, analysis, and verification capabilities. Developers can use the SxT Studio web interface for visual analysis, or use SQL/REST API to publish query results to applications, dashboards, or machine learning models. At the same time, the platform has a built-in data market where data providers can publish any tabular data and allow community users to query it through access control and encryption settings, thereby earning SXT token rewards during queries. For example, SxT recommends enterprises (like retail giant Amazon) to stream user data into their decentralized warehouse, allowing consumers to have confidence in their data privacy while leveraging this data for real-time analysis and personalized recommendations.
In terms of charging models, Space and Time emphasizes that 'storage is always free; only computation is charged'. Official pricing indicates that users do not need to pay for data storage, and the platform's revenue primarily comes from the usage fees of query computing resources and premium services. It offers a 'pay-per-computation' model and also provides a multi-tenant plan aimed at enterprises (starting at about $699/month), which includes higher performance, lower latency, consulting support, and up to 10TB of free storage. Customized independent deployment options will also be introduced in the future. On the other hand, SXT itself serves as the ecological token used to pay for data processing fees and staking incentives within the network; thus, even if basic services are free, network operators and data providers can still gain revenue through token economics.
Space and Time targets a wide range of customer types: on one hand, it provides data support for Web3 applications such as DeFi protocols and blockchain games, meeting the real-time query and analysis needs of these projects for cross-chain data; on the other hand, SxT also aims at traditional financial, retail, e-commerce, and other data-intensive enterprises, helping them build a trustworthy data architecture in a Web3 environment. The technology of SxT is essentially compatible with big data and AI scenarios—any scenario requiring transaction-level queries and complex analyses on large-scale distributed data (such as real-time big data queries, BI analysis, training large AI models) can benefit from its verifiable on-chain/off-chain hybrid data platform. In summary, SxT aims to become the next-generation data infrastructure for blockchain and enterprise applications by providing 'decentralized database + smart contract verification' services.
(3) Competitive Advantages
Technically, Space and Time clearly differs from existing products. Compared to decentralized indexing services like The Graph, SxT not only supports standard SQL queries but also handles large-scale analytical workloads and provides zero-knowledge proof guarantees for query results. Graph is suitable for simple on-chain event queries, but its architecture primarily targets on-chain data, making it difficult to scale to multi-chain or off-chain data, and the query results themselves cannot prove their correctness. SxT fills this gap, merging blockchain data with traditional database capabilities, allowing smart contracts to operate in a data-driven manner. In addition, SxT supports putting its own computational results on-chain, enabling enterprises to utilize Chainlink and other oracles to bring critical data on-chain without paying significant on-chain storage fees, forming a complete application loop. In terms of business model, the free storage and pay-as-you-go strategy lowers the usage threshold for customers; while the token economic model provides incentives for data providers and validation nodes, helping to quickly establish a decentralized ecosystem.
In comparison, projects like Ocean Protocol focus on data asset exchange and privacy markets, providing dataset sharing and licensing mechanisms, but their emphasis is not on building real-time query engines or executing SQL computations. SxT, on the other hand, focuses on integrated 'query + verification + execution', allowing users to run queries directly on on-chain and off-chain data and obtain cryptographic guarantees, which is relatively rare among existing competitors. Therefore, Space and Time can be seen as a cross-border product that combines blockchain indexing, data warehousing, and cryptographic proofs.
(4) Potential Disadvantages and Challenges
Space and Time is an emerging technology that is currently still in the testnet stage, requiring gradual verification of its performance and security in practical applications. On one hand, for the SxT network to achieve high availability and decentralization, it needs to attract enough nodes to participate in validation, which poses a challenge for early decentralized security. On the other hand, compared to mature centralized analytical platforms (such as Snowflake, BigQuery), the additional computational overhead brought by zero-knowledge proofs may impact query latency, especially when querying large volumes of data. Currently, SxT can generate proofs for millions of rows of data in seconds, but the efficiency of large-scale applications remains to be tested by the market. Additionally, competitors like The Graph and major cloud vendors are also actively expanding their services (for example, Graph is developing higher-performance indexing solutions), and SxT needs to continue optimizing to maintain its edge. Finally, for enterprise users, the new mechanisms such as token economics and on-chain verification carry learning costs and uncertainties, requiring Space and Time to invest sufficient effort in documentation, support, and ecosystem building to address customer concerns and promote large-scale adoption.
3. Team Introduction
Space and Time was founded by a team with backgrounds in databases and cryptography. The founding team includes CEO Nate Holiday (former head of global product operations at Teradata, vice president at Vista Equity, currently an advisor at Chainlink), CTO Scott Dykstra (former vice president of cloud engineering at Teradata), research head Jay White (PhD in mathematics, former university professor, leading the development of the Proof of SQL protocol), and CFO Craig Holiday (former CFO and COO of Eleutian Technologies, previously at PwC). They previously co-founded companies in the data field and have a deep understanding of the development and commercialization of large-scale distributed systems. In terms of technical advisors, the Space and Time team has also attracted experts from the fields of on-chain data indexing and privacy technology.
4. Financing Information
In terms of financing, Space and Time has completed multiple rounds of funding. To date, the company has raised approximately $50 million.
In August 2024, Space and Time announced the completion of a $20 million Series A funding round led by Framework Ventures, with participation from Lightspeed Faction, Arrington Capital, Hivemind Capital, and others, bringing the total funding scale to $50 million. This round of investment also attracted participation from several institutions, including Microsoft's venture capital M12, DCG, OKX Ventures, Circle Ventures, Matter Labs, Gate.io, and more. Previously in 2022, the company had already secured seed funding in the tens of millions of dollars supported by entities such as Samsung Next and Chainlink Labs. The investor group of Space and Time covers well-known Web3 funds and tech giants, demonstrating market recognition of its 'Blockchain + Big Data' vision.
5. Token Economics
6. Collaboration and Ecological Development
Space and Time actively expands industrial cooperation to accelerate ecological development. The most notable collaboration is the deep integration with Chainlink: SxT has joined Chainlink’s BUILD project, and both parties are jointly developing enterprise-level oracle solutions to achieve on-chain verification of query results. In addition, SxT plans to allocate 4% of the total SXT tokens (equivalent to 200 million tokens) to reward nodes and users in the Chainlink ecosystem to incentivize the expansion of its network. From the Microsoft side, Space and Time received investment from M12 (Microsoft's venture capital) and Azure cloud technology support. Microsoft's official case report indicates that Space and Time, as a verifiable data warehouse supported by Microsoft, is combining technologies such as Azure OpenAI services to provide AI-based on-chain data analysis for enterprises. Sotero is another important partner, providing SxT with encrypted query solutions. In the future, SxT may also establish integrations with more public chains, data service providers, and AI platforms.
At the ecological level, Space and Time provides developers with comprehensive tools and documentation, including online documentation, GitHub open-source projects, and community support channels (Discord, Telegram, X/Twitter, etc.). According to publicly available data, Space and Time has hundreds of thousands of followers on social media (its official X account has nearly 500,000 followers), and the community is highly active. The team also plans to attract more developers by hosting hackathons and collaborating on example applications. Currently, the SxT testnet and Studio interface are open to the public, allowing enterprise users to easily deploy and trial its services (for example, it is already available on Azure and Google Cloud marketplaces). Overall, Space and Time is striving to build an open ecosystem that integrates blockchain, databases, and AI through its technological innovations and strong collaborative lineup.
7. Secondary Market Performance Forecast
(1) Recent Performance of Binance Launchpool
Recently, the overall return rate of Binance Launchpool has been relatively low, ranging from 100% to 400% from the opening price.
(2) On-chain Lending Costs
Compared to the on-chain lending costs, the amount of on-chain fund borrowing this time is relatively small, with an opening price of $0.028 USD corresponding to a total market value of $140 million.
(3) Similar Competitor Comparison
Compared to other products in the same track, Space and Time is quite unique, with its core mechanism Proof of SQL having no direct competitors.
(4) Pre-market Trading Price
Currently, SXT contract trading pairs have been launched on Binance contracts, priced at $0.179 USD, with a 24-hour trading volume of $17 million, a holding amount of $2.7 million, and a current price corresponding to a circulating market value of $250 million, with a total market capitalization of $895 million.
In summary, we believe the short-term opening reasonable range for SXT token price is $0.075 - $0.01 USD, corresponding to a circulating market value of $105 million - $140 million, and a total market value of $375 million - $500 million.
