ODATANO Reports 14,698 Sponsored Transactions on Midnight Preprod

ODATANO reported that its API processed 14,698 sponsored transactions on Midnight Preprod over 14 days. The project recorded a peak of approximately 2,600 transactions in one day and reported that 99.7% were finalized onchain.

The activity involved NIGHTGATE, ODATANO’s gateway for interacting with Midnight data and smart contracts. Preprod is a test network separate from Midnight mainnet.

AI Agents Call Midnight Contracts With Sponsored Fees

According to ODATANO, agents can call contracts through NIGHTGATE without holding NIGHT, signing for network fees, or waiting for a wallet. The project lists attestations, swaps, token minting, and contract deployment among the operations supported through sponsorship.

NIGHTGATE uses OData V4, a standard for accessing data and services through an API. Its Midnight interface provides information about blocks, transactions, and contract state, alongside functions for document anchoring, proofs, and transaction submission.

The gateway is part of ODATANO’s open-source infrastructure. Its Cardano component, ODATANO CORE, provides access to data such as addresses, assets, and unspent transaction outputs.

How DUST Sponsorship Works

Midnight uses DUST to pay network fees. DUST is a shielded, nontransferable resource generated from registered NIGHT holdings. It is consumed when transactions are executed and replenishes over time up to a defined capacity.

When a transaction is sponsored, the sponsor supplies the DUST needed for the fee. This allows an agent or application using the service to submit supported operations without generating its own DUST.

NIGHTGATE’s documentation also describes a workflow in which a user builds and signs a contract call locally. The resulting transaction is then sent to a sponsor, which covers the fee and submits it to the network.

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API Access and Mainnet Vaults

ODATANO’s hosted API uses one key for its Cardano and Midnight Preprod services. Developers can access the services through OData, while Model Context Protocol servers connect AI agents to the available tools. The hosted API documentation excludes contract deployment from the functions available through its public key.

NIGHTGATE also supports document attestations and zero-knowledge proofs. An attestation can connect a cryptographic record to a contract while the underlying document remains offchain. A proof can establish that private data meets a condition without revealing the value being checked.

The project previously announced that its first attestation vault contracts had been deployed on Midnight mainnet. The newly reported transaction figures concern activity on Preprod. Developers can use the hosted testnet API or run NIGHTGATE in their own infrastructure.