Microsoft adds real-time blockchain data to Fabric through Space and Time integration

Microsoft is integrating new blockchain data feeds into its Fabric analytics platform through a partnership with crypto startup Space and Time Labs (SXT), which a Microsoft venture unit has previously backed. 

According to an announcement on Tuesday, Space and Time will provide Fabric users with “real-time, verifiable” data feeds for Bitcoin, Sui, and Ethereum in the Microsoft Azure OneLake platform, a kind of "OneDrive for data" that provides a single cloud storage account.

"This is a direct integration and product offering in Fabric," Nate Holiday, co-founder and CEO at Space and Time, told The Block in a direct message. "It’s a combined new product to the masses." 

"By integrating with Microsoft Fabric, Space and Time not only expands our ability to serve developers and enterprises with reliable data but also aligns with our mission to democratize technology across diverse industries, including Web3,” Microsoft Fabric Principal Product Manager Sruly Taber said in a statement. “This integration underscores our commitment to providing tools that enhance productivity and drive innovation at a global scale.”

Microsoft Fabric is an end-to-end analytics platform for data management that unifies multiple pieces of Microsoft’s product suite — including the Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Power BI — into a single environment. 

Integrating SXT “streamlines” Microsoft developers’ access to crypto data, “providing a trusted and efficient solution for enterprises to leverage insights around onchain activity directly within their applications.” Holiday noted that potential target clients include large banks.

"Now all of the users that use Fabric free blockchain data as part of this integrated data suite powered by Space & Time, and offering through Microsoft to their customers," he said. 

According to Holiday, neither party is paying for the integration. That is, it's not a revenue driver for the startup, but also not their expense. He noted Microsoft is "onboarding them as the first web3 data provider."

The move comes about a week after Space and Time launched its public, permissionless mainnet. SXT uses zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs to verify and index information, which is stored across a decentralized network of database validators. The system enables developers to quickly query information using a “sub-second” ZK coprocessor for SQL database called “Proof of SQL.”

As SXT contributor Scott Dykstra puts it, the network enables enterprises like Microsoft to securely connect their traditional cloud databases with smart contracts, potentially unlocking “sophisticated, data-driven onchain applications secured by cryptographic proofs.” In other words, like a blockchain oracle, SXT helps connect the offchain and onchain worlds. 

Space and Time, created by MakeInfinite Labs, is backed by Microsoft’s corporate venture capital subsidiary M12. Microsoft’s VC arm participated in SXT’s $20 million Series A funding round after leading its strategic round in 2022. The startup has raised a total of $50 million to date.