AI Gets the Keys, Not the Database: Space and Time Launches Verifiable Data Platform

Space and Time, a Microsoft-backed blockchain data project, launched Space and Time Enterprise on Monday, enabling businesses to verify calculations performed on private data without giving AI applications, auditors or other stakeholders direct access to the underlying records.

Launch partners include onchain asset manager Maple Finance, Indonesian vehicle maker and distributor Indomobil, Oracle software consultancy Trenez and The Data Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit focused on government data. The platform allows businesses to prove that calculations made on private data are correct, providing evidence that AI agents and reporting tools worked from the same records without exposing the database itself.

“Businesses want AI agents to execute workflows using that information, but those agents don't need unrestricted access to the records behind every calculation,” Nate Holiday, CEO of MakeInfinite Labs, the original developer of Space and Time, told Decrypt. “The potential cost to a business is the overall value of the business,” Holiday said. “Giving AI tools unrestricted access to data creates another avenue of exposure.”

The platform is built on Proof of SQL, Space and Time's patented technology for proving that database queries were computed correctly. It already works with Google Cloud's BigQuery, while businesses can also run it on their own servers without operating a blockchain, buying specialized hardware or relying on an outside proving service, according to the company. With GPU acceleration, supported queries over millions of rows can be run and proven in under a second, Holiday said, though actual performance depends on the query, hardware and dataset.

Space and Time is also working with customers in construction, engineering and manufacturing on systems that connect AI agents, reporting tools and compliance teams. The technology verifies how a calculation was performed against a specified set of records but cannot establish whether those records were accurate, Holiday said. “An incorrect entry still needs to be caught through the business's data controls,” he said, “but verification gives those controls a much stronger foundation: evidence of which data was used and whether it was processed correctly.”

Space and Time raised $20 million in 2022 in a strategic funding round led by M12, Microsoft's venture fund. Last year, Grayscale launched a trust giving investors exposure to SXT, the token that powers Space and Time's blockchain. Earlier this year, the company launched Dreamspace, an AI-powered tool built with Microsoft's Azure AI services that lets users create and deploy onchain apps without writing code.