Automata Network (ATA)

• Automata Network is a decentralized service protocol that provides a privacy middleware layer for dApps across multiple blockchains. The protocol enables several use-cases such as Anonymous Voting and Miner Extractable Value (MEV) Minimization by leveraging the latest cryptography and privacy-protecting algorithms, along with Trusted Execution Environments (TEE).

• ATA is the native utility token of the Automata Network and has the following existing and planned use cases:

  • Governance: ATA token holders can create and vote on proposals, platform features, and network parameters.

  • Mining rewards: Compute and storage miners earn ATA tokens by running applications and executing transactions for users on the network.

  • Protocol fees: Users pay miners for storage and computation work tasks.

  • Geode allocation: Users can bond ATA tokens to participate in Geode auctions.

• Witness is Automata Network’s off-chain voting governance solution for voters who do not wish to reveal their identity while participating in governance at zero gas costs. Voter may also delegate their voting power to other addresses. Witness also supports Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and other Substrate-based EVM-compatible chains.

• Automata Network is developing an MEV minimization solution, Conveyor, which aims to create a front-running-free zone as it arranges transactions in a determined order. This makes it impossible for malicious actors to: (1) inject new transactions into the Conveyor output due to signature mismatch, or to (2) delete ordered transactions, as transactions are broadcasted throughout the network.

• The total supply of ATA is 1,000,000,000 and the circulating supply upon listing on Binance will be 17.23%.

Key metrics (as of June 1st 2021)

1. What is Automata Network?

Automata middleware-like solution stack

Source: Automata Network

Automata Network is a decentralized service protocol that provides a privacy middleware layer for dApps across multiple blockchains.

It enables several privacy use-cases such as Anonymous Voting and Miner Extractable Value (MEV) minimization by leveraging on the latest cryptography and privacy-preserving algorithms, along with trusted execution environments.

Automata Network is built by industry veterans and researchers, with team members having previously worked at Zilliqa, LongHash, and the National University of Singapore. Founded in 2019, Automata Network is a recipient of Web3 Grant (2020), and a participant of the Web 3.0 Bootcamp (2020), Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator (2021), and prensented at the Polkadot Decoded Mainstage (2021). The team’s investors include KR1, Alameda Research, IOSG Ventures, Divergence Capital, Genesis Block Ventures, and Jump Trading.

Witness is Automata Network’s off-chain voting governance solution for voters who do not wish to reveal their identity while participating in governance at zero gas costs. Voter may also delegate their voting power to other addresses. Witness also supports Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and other Substrate-based EVM-compatible chains and offers the following features:

• Zero-gas fee: Voting is conducted off-chain so there is no gas cost.

• On-chain execution: Based on the voting results, the on-chain contract registered during proposal creation can be triggered.

• Privacy: Users can adjust and choose between different privacy levels from Public to Private voting. For Private voting, only the voting result is published, whereas the voter identities and the number of votes will remain hidden.

• Delegation: Users are able to delegate their voting power to another address.

Automata Network is developing a MEV minimization solution, Conveyor, which aims to create a front-running-free zone as it ingests and outputs transactions in a determined order. As such, it is impossible for malicious actors to: (1) inject new transactions into the Conveyor output, due to signature mismatch or To (2) delete ordered transactions, as transactions are broadcasted throughout the network.

Conveyer offers users the following additional features:

• Anti-front-running: No front-running transactions on the trading pairs that support Conveyor.

• Privacy on ordering: Transaction ordering is not revealed unless it is determined and unalterable. No one, including the hosting nodes, will know the ordering before it is decided.

2. Recent news

Source: Automata Network

• May 2021: Raised 2.4MM USD in a strategic round joined by KR1, Jump Trading and IOSG Ventures.

• May 2021: Presented on Mainstage of Polkadot Decoded 2021 in the event’s first community-curated lineup as the only lightning pitch.

• May 2021: Mentioned on Bloomberg as a privacy-focused solution designed to thwart front-runners in the crypto trading ecosystem.

• April 2021: Launched Witness, now supported by Plasm, Clover Finance, Crust, Bounce Finance, MathWallet and Celer Network.

• March 2021: Raised 1MM USD in seed round co-led by Alameda, KR1, Divergence, IOSG, etc.

• March 2021: Selected into Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator 2021 Cohort.

3. Token economics and supply

3.1 Token sale data

3.2 Token allocation

3.3 ATA token allocation

ATA token release schedule

4. Technical infrastructure

An overview of Automata’s protocol design

Source: Automata Network

4.1 Automata nodes

There are two types of nodes in the Automata Network:

• Automata Validators participate in Proof-of-Stake consensus finding. They are also responsible for any number of ‘control plane’ related tasks, including managing the:

  • Registration of both staking and hosting nodes.

  • Distribution of work tasks and rewards.

  • Marketplace for selling and buying computing power.

• Automata Geodes employ a number of cutting-edge technologies, including Oblivious RAM to successfully create an isolated and shielded environment to conceal data access patterns.

An illustration of how Geode works

Source: Automata Network

4.2 Automata planes

Planes: Control, Compute, Service

Source: Automata Network

• Automata Validators and Automata Geodes interact with each other across 3 planes, namely Control, Compute and Service. Each plane serves a distinct and important function:

  • The Control plane is the coordinator. The validator maintains a copy of the protocol state so that the Geode can receive new tasks and report their status.

  • The Compute plane is the executor. This is where Geodes can complete scheduled tasks and submit proof of execution.

  • The Service place is user-facing. Vendors can develop and run applications in Geode without actually hosting the Geode itself.

5. Community overview

Automata Network intends to develop a global community and establish a social media presence with bregional bases. With the proposition of providing a privacy middleware layer for dApps across multi-chains, Automata Network aims to be recognized as the go-to privacy service for DeFi and the overall Web3 space.

Current community growth strategies include:

• Consistent pipeline of content to educate and engage with community members.

• Regular content calendar on social media platforms to expand and grow following.

• Publishing original research in the form of MEV.Wiki to amplify thought-leadership.

• Participation in industry events, such as Polkadot Decoded to boost presence.

• Provide monthly updates on the project’s latest news, developments and technical progress via blog posts and newsletters.

• Dedicated and professional team managing and monitoring social channels 24/7.

Future growth strategies include:

• Launch of marketing campaign in conjunction with Binance Launchpool listing:

  • Onboard influencers including institutional and first-tier investors with differentiated know-how, as well as retail community leaders.

  • Extensive lineup of partnership announcements, cross-project AMAs and interviews conducted with strategic industry partners.

  • Continued media coverage, leveraging on positive relationships built up with media outlets such as Coindesk and ChainNews.

• Launch of public MEV toolkit to cement and bolster thought leadership around various topics.

• Launch of ambassador program to contribute to and advocate for the project.

• Organize community meetups, events and online webinars for greater exposure.

• Create product guides, demos and bi-weekly updates for the community.

6. Community and social channels (as of June 10th 2021)

• Twitter | 68.5K Members

• Telegram | 19.1K Members

• Discord | 2.2K Members

• Website

• Medium

• Source code

• Litepaper

• Documentation

• Newsletter