In August 2024, Space and Time announced the completion of a new round of $20 million Series A financing, led by Framework Ventures, with participation from Microsoft's venture capital division, M12. Notably, this is not Microsoft's first investment in the project. Back in September 2022, M12 had also led an investment of the same amount — the largest investment by Microsoft in the field of blockchain and AI integration to date. To date, Space and Time has raised a total of $50 million.
So why has Space and Time attracted Microsoft's attention? What underlying technologies have won the favor of capital? This article will systematically analyze the technical architecture and ecological potential of this project.
What is Space and Time?
Space and Time (SXT) expands zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs on decentralized databases, providing trustless data processing capabilities for smart contracts. SXT can connect comprehensive blockchain data indexed from mainstream blockchains with your application data or other off-chain datasets.
One of its core components is the SQL proof (Proof of SQL), which is a sub-second zero-knowledge proof coprocessor that allows smart contracts to initiate complex queries to on-chain or other chains and return ZK-verified computation results in the next block. This enables developers to build more complex and dynamic decentralized applications based on on-chain transactions, events, storage, and other data.
What are the underlying technical advantages of Space and Time?
Decentralized database systems
Space and Time brings the querying capabilities of traditional databases into Web3, achieving verifiable data query results on-chain through the combination of Proof of SQL and ZK Proofs.
Proof of SQL: Ensuring the verifiability of every database query result, preventing cheating from centralized nodes.
ZK Proofs: Ensuring data privacy while guaranteeing reliable computation, suitable for high-sensitivity scenarios such as finance and AI. ZK Proofs play a key role in data verifiability and zero-trust architecture, high performance and sub-second proof generation, data privacy protection, the trusted bridging of on-chain and off-chain data integration, decentralization, and resistance to tampering.
Ease of use and compatibility of SQL
SQL is the mainstream database development language, and its declarative syntax structure allows users to describe the desired results without writing out the complete operation process. Its standardization is high, and the threshold is low:
Lowering the development threshold to attract Web2 developers to migrate to Web3.
Reusable traditional application logic to accelerate the dApp development cycle.
Applications of zero-knowledge coprocessors
A coprocessor refers to an auxiliary computing unit that can offload the computing load from the main chain, enhancing performance and efficiency. In the blockchain field, it is typically used to improve computing efficiency, support specific functions, parallel processing, reduce energy consumption, and enhance security. Typical applications of coprocessors include Bitcoin's ASIC mining chips, ZKP generation and verification, Layer 2 state updates, etc.
The ZK coprocessor of Space and Time offloads SQL query computation tasks from the main blockchain (such as Ethereum) to off-chain execution, significantly reducing on-chain computing costs (such as gas fees) and latency.
For example, for SQL queries processing millions of rows of data, the ZK coprocessor can generate zero-knowledge proofs in sub-second time without repeating calculations on-chain. This coprocessor not only executes SQL queries but can also generate small-volume, low-verification-cost ZK-SNARKs proofs, suitable for real-time transactions.
By migrating data processing and proof generation to off-chain, the ZK coprocessor addresses the bottleneck of smart contracts accessing historical data or cross-chain data, significantly enhancing the scalability of blockchain. For example, it supports indexing data from mainstream chains such as Ethereum, Polygon, ZKsync, breaking the on-chain data island.
The ZK coprocessor also supports integration with off-chain databases (such as PostgreSQL, Snowflake), enabling smart contracts to execute complex cross-chain queries or hybrid queries, with all results returned on-chain through ZK proofs, ensuring trustworthiness without trust.
Space and Time has specifically optimized the ZK coprocessor for SQL, achieving proof generation speeds that are 1-2 orders of magnitude faster compared to general zkVMs. Recent posts on platform X claim that the performance of the Proof of SQL coprocessor has increased threefold, effectively reducing query latency and further enhancing its real-time transaction capabilities.
What are the differences between Space and Time and its competitors?
Currently, most blockchain data query protocols, such as The Graph, use subgraph mechanisms to index on-chain data. The characteristics of these protocols are:
Simple and easy to use, allowing developers to quickly get started.
However, it relies on the honesty of indexers and lacks a built-in verifiable computing mechanism.
More suitable for lightweight, primarily on-chain data dApps, such as NFTs or DAOs.
In contrast, Space and Time provides stronger data verifiability and supports on-chain and off-chain data integration.
Performance: Supports sub-second queries for PB-level data, with efficiency far exceeding traditional solutions.
Cost: Operating costs are only 20% of similar solutions.
Application: Suitable for complex data interactions, enterprise-level analytics, AI training data calls, and other needs.
Of course, the threshold is also higher, posing challenges to developers' understanding of ZK and data architecture design capabilities.
Future outlook and potential risks
Space and Time's positioning determines that it develops in a dislocated manner from mainstream query protocols in application scenarios, and the competitive relationship is not direct. However, the project is still in its early stages, and the ecosystem has not yet been fully established:
The community scale is limited, and a strong developer network has not yet formed.
Commercial deployment is still in the exploratory phase, with few use cases.
However, its technical potential and backing from institutions like Microsoft make it a potential dark horse in the 'AI + blockchain' track.
Summary
As an emerging project, Space and Time has raised a total of $50 million, making it one of the more representative phenomenon projects in the current 'blockchain + AI' track. It possesses strong innovation technically, but it may also face issues such as insufficient use cases and low user activity in the future, so participation should still be prudently assessed based on personal judgment.
This round of financing also marks Microsoft's first significant bet on the intersection of blockchain and AI. As a traditional tech giant, Microsoft is pushing its Azure cloud services to further adapt to the merging trends of Web3 and AI through this layout. At the same time, the participation of institutions also endorses the project, enhancing confidence in this direction both inside and outside the industry.
It can be said that Microsoft's investment this time demonstrates its long-term optimism about the intersection of blockchain and AI, and its logic continues the approach of investing in OpenAI. To some extent, this conveys a signal of traditional tech companies moving from 'watching' to 'deep participation', further driving the market's attention to 'AI + blockchain' integration projects.
This article is for sharing and communication only and does not constitute investment advice.
