Bitcoin in Space?

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I recently came across a project that I thought was pretty interesting.

"The Blockstream Satellite network broadcasts the Bitcoin blockchain around the world 24/7 for free, protecting against network interruptions and providing areas without reliable internet connections with the opportunity to use Bitcoin."
- Blockstream

It is called Blockstream Satellite, a company streaming the Bitcoin blockchain to space for free. All you need is a satellite kit which ranges from $400 - $900 (both of which are sold out).

While the kits are expensive, they are a one-time cost and do not require any Internet connection. This could be very useful for certain parts of the world where Internet is unreliable and expensive. That being said, the coverage looks like it could be improved quite a bit.

While most of the popular areas have good coverage, there are many countries without any coverage at all.

The service is free to use providing you have a satellite kit.

They have a transmission log on their site and it doesn't seem to be too actively used, certainly not enough to pay for 6 satellites they have in orbit.

While it is pretty interesting, and may become more popular in the future, for now it just seems like an "oh that's cool" but that's about it.

If you do want to check it out though, you can visit their website.

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15 comments
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In theory, you could install one of these inside a vending machine. If you want to buy a candy bar, the vending machine generates a bitcoin address for you to send funds to and displays it as a QR code.

It could then just watch the mempool for your transaction. Obviously, just watching the mempool exposes the machine to double-spend attack, but maybe there's a tradeoff in cost risk when you don't need to run any internet infrastructure for your vending machine.

Hopefully the satellite signal also carries the current fiat prices.

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That is pretty interesting. It is a good idea if there was more need for it, but until things get sorted out there probably won't be. Be honest though, if they weren't sold out would you have bought one of them?

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No, I wouldn't, but I am looking at getting Starlink (Elon Musk's Satellite Internet) as a backup, I just got the accepted letter last week.

I do know a lot of places in the world are not in the same position I am and some of these less typical solutions are life changing for them. There are many areas of the world where a $35 Raspberry Pi can change someone's life and give them the ability to use the Internet when they couldn't before.

Just because it isn't a good solution for you or me, doesn't mean it can't be life changing for someone else.

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I signed up for the Starlink early access as well. I haven't heard back from them yet. It honestly seems a little expensive for the speed compared to what I am getting through Spectrum. I think they are going to have to fix that if they want it to be truly accessible to a large part of the population. Did you see my post a while ago about Helium? I thought of you when I was writing the post. It seemed like something you would find interesting.

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Their target was 1Gbit @ 20ms ping, they have since upped it to 10Gbit. The beta is only 50-150MBps but it is likely going to get much faster.

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Ah, okay, that makes more sense then. Even 1 Gbit would be pretty decent but if they can get it up to 10, that would be amazing. The 50 to 150 is what I saw and that is what caused my reservations.

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Makes the network that much more resilient, very cool. I could see more and more blockchains being broadcast in the future.

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Holy Cow!!!! You mean Bitcoin is no longer only a worldwide currency but could now become the currency of the solar system as well?!!? That opens up HUGE markets! We're on our way to Mars indeed!!! Literally!!! :-)

Nice article. I had no idea this was happening. I guess all those SpaceX rockets are actually helping the crypto space as well....

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Going to check this out. A digital currency is the definite first step to expanding our global economy past the scope of just the globe!

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Very interesting project indeed, goes to show the limitless possibilities offered by the crypto space and technology in general. While it's not that useful in many parts of the world, it's still great to see that the technological advancement being made is actually empowering the people and offering independence.

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That is very interesting!

It may not be so useful now, but, if it proves to be reliable, sure opens up a lot of possibilities.

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