Automata Network

Automata Network (ATA) is a high-performance compute protocol that strives to empower Web 3.0 applications and businesses with privacy-first, high assurance, and friction-less transactions. It aims to provide the functionalities and infrastructure necessary to realize the vision of a seamless Web 3.0 experience. Automata Network addresses the lack of transparency in data ownership, censorship, and intrusion into personal privacy. It provides privacy services for various blockchains, allowing users to control their data. The degree of privacy of computation in Automata can be stronger than in centralized web services.

Automata Network operates through a group of staking nodes and governs interactions between participants of the protocol. It provides interfaces for multiple blockchains to exchange data and cooperate on the agreed set of data in an atomic and privacy-preserving manner. Automata Network's applications aim to serve Web3 purposes and include anonymous voting, miner extractable value (MEV) minimization, and do-not-track indexing. These applications allow users to transact safely, regain control of their identity, and provide better building blocks to developers with open-source code and APIs.

Automata Network has several potential use cases. Its anonymous voting service, called Witness, provides low-cost, off-chain voting, on-chain execution based on the results, and different levels of privacy, ranging from private to public, based on the protocol’s requirements. Automata's MEV minimization solution, Conveyor, aims to be chain-agnostic and work seamlessly with decentralized exchanges. It ingests and outputs transactions in a determined order, thereby creating a front-running-free zone that removes the chaos of transaction reordering. Automata Network also provides a modular attestation layer with attestation conducted fully on-chain for out-of-protocol computation, forming the basis for Proof of Machinehood.

Automata Network was founded in 2019 by a team of blockchain developers and researchers, including previous founding members of Ziliqa. Co-founder Zheng Leong Chua holds a PhD in computer science from the National University of Singapore, while the other co-founder Deli Gong previously worked at Ziliqa as infrastructure lead. The team has been a recipient of Web3 Grant (2020), a participant of the Web 3.0 Bootcamp (2020), Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator (2021), and Polkadot Decoded Mainstage speaker (2021). Automata received $2.4 million in funding in June 2021 and closed a seed round in March 2021 with $1 million in funding.