Space and Time (SxT), a decentralized AI-powered data warehouse, announced a strategic collaboration with Matter Labs, a leading developer of zkSync technology, this Thursday. The partnership will see SxT build its network on a zkSync hyperchain, enhancing scalability and decentralization for users.
As a data warehouse that combines tamperproof on-chain and off-chain data to deliver enterprise use cases to smart contracts, building on a zkSync hyperchain will allow it to operate as a Verifiable Compute Layer, that delivers trustless data processing to these enterprises.
“Given our commitment to ZK, we knew we wanted to leverage a zkEVM as our network’s dedicated settlement layer,” said Scott Dykstra, Co-Founder and CTO of SxT. “zkSync is best-in-class in fulfilling the vision of trustless L2s, offering extremely fast and low-cost ZK-proven transactions.”
As transparency, security and trustless data become more necessary in the Web 3 space, the launch of SxT on zkSync could provide a core infrastructure for developers. This means Web 3 developers will be able to leverage SxT’s platform to pair their indexed blockchain data with custom and/or proprietary off-chain datasets, aggregate/analyze/query them, and send the data back to smart contracts.
The platform ensures that data sourced from different platforms is accurate, verifiable, tamperproof, and secure. This is made possible via its hybrid transactional and analytic database where real-time data is indexed from major blockchains and combined with data from off-chain sources. This data is then verified via zero-knowledge proofs to ensure it is correct and trustless.
With the introduction of zkSync, developers will have a better quality of data, which could be useful in building futuristic AI applications and new Web 3 innovations, applications and use cases.
SxT and Matter Labs set to build a ZK Stack hyperchain
Crucially, the collaboration brings together two well-versed companies in the ZK technology field to build out the SxT platform on a ZK Stack hyperchain. Hyperchains refer to custom blockchains that will run either as Layer 2 networks parallel to zkSync Era or as Layer 3 Validiums in the zkSync ecosystem. SxT’s hyperchain will offer several benefits to developers and users.
The hyperchain will act as the hub chain for all SxT’s liquidity, whereby payments made for compute power using various tokens and currencies will be stored on the hyperchain. Additionally, the hyperchain will be the dedicated settlement layer, ensuring extra security and efficient transactions on the SxT network. Finally, the zkSync hyperchain will keep a record of all hashes of the SxT tables, ensuring transactions and activities are all verifiable.
“Space and Time aims to serve as the foundational Verifiable Compute Layer for Web3. This, in combination with the Space and Time hyperchain, will enable zero knowledge-based verification of queries/data and ensure that community-operated data warehouse nodes are not manipulating raw data or the query results,” Vassilis Tziokas, Head of Enterprise Business Development at Matter Labs said during the partnership announcement.
SxT hyperchain to introduce new features to zkSync
Apart from leveraging zkSync technology, Space and Time developers are also working on adding additional features to the ecosystem. First, SxT will provide verifiable indexed zkSync data, from the zkSync Era and hyperchains, for free to developers. This aims to make it cheaper for development on their hyperchains, which increases innovation and development of novel products on the platform.
Following the partnership, developers can also deliver sub-second ZK proofs to zkSync smart contracts. SxT will allow ZK-proven query results against zkSync data and off chain data to be connected back to zkSync smart contracts within block time.
Also, developers and builders on SxT can access terabytes of traditional finance data from off-chain sources and other blockchains. zkSync smart contracts will be able to access aggregate, and analyze verifiable data from traditional financial markets to facilitate more sophisticated DeFi that leverages offchain data.
“We’re excited to partner with SxT and advance our shared vision of offering developers sophisticated, data-driven, cross-chain smart contracts,” Tziokas added.
Finally, the two teams will also explore how to natively integrate SQL capabilities into the zkEVM stack, making zkSync the first SQL-compatible smart contract platform.
Featured image credit: spaceandtime
