Decentralized service protocol Automata Network has announced its official launch, backed by a $1 million investment.
- The seed funding round was co-led by various blockchain and decentralized protocol investors, including Genesis Block Ventures, IOSG Ventures and Sam Bankman-Fried's Alameda Research.
- Automata Network provides what it calls "middleware-like" services for decentralized applications (dapps), helping them maintain privacy while allowing frictionless integration onto platforms like Ethereum and Polkadot.
- The protocol harnesses a cryptographic scheme called "oblivious RAM" to conceal data access patterns, while its privacy relayer will offer functionalities such as tamper-proof data sourcing and anonymous voting.
- Automata will attempt to "capture an immediate market demand for privacy-preserving DeFi applications without having to rewrite them," according to IOSG partner Xinshu Dong.