Weve all heard the expression blockchain can change the world. But maybe thats not ambitious enough. Why stop at Planet Earth?
Because for its next magic trick, blockchain is going to space.
Maybe this shouldnt be surprising because the overlap in the Venn diagram of Crypto Bros and Space Heads rivals that of Crypto and Burning Man. These are very closely aligned groups, says George Pullen, co-author of Blockchain and The Space Economy. If you are a blockchain devotee, then you have willingly projected forward a vision of the future that 95% to 99% of your peers dont understand and dont get. Space is the same way.
The flashiest example is Elon Musk, whose tweets are a mix of SpaceX updates and jokes about dogecoin. And then theres Jeff Garzik, an early Bitcoin Core developer whos also the co-founder and CTO of SpaceChain, a project whose mission is to integrate space and blockchain technologies. Im a big sci-fi nerd, says Garzik, who has been hooked on space ever since his father took him to Cape Canaveral back in the 1980s to watch NASA shuttle launches.
George Pullen and Adam Back will appear at Consensus by CoinDesk, our virtual experience May 24-27. Registerhere.
Thanks largely to the private sectors surge of interest what some call Space Race 2.0 Garzik predicts that within 10 years well have Antarctica-style bases on the moon. Regular supply runs will keep these lunar bases stocked. A three-day journey to the moon will be pretty normal, he says. And once we have a true foothold on the moon its just another hop to Mars because the shuttles will no longer need to fight earths gravity or atmosphere. The moon in 10 [years], Mars in 20. Thats very realistic, says Garzik.
So how does blockchain fit into all of this? I am one of those first companies in the 1800s heading west, laying down railroad tracks, says Garzik. Blockchain is plumbing. Blockchain is infrastructure. To mix the metaphors a bit, if Antarctica-style bases are to be built on the moon, then well need the equivalent of cellphone towers to make those bases functional.
Every cellphone tower (or the space equivalent), every supply run to the moon, every launch of a satellite, and every video streamed from a Mars rover needs to be financed. In the glory days of the space race, that tab was paid for by NASA and the taxpayer. Today, the space economy is increasingly fueled by the private sector, and that capital doesnt come from just one person. (Sorry, Elon.) Not even billionaires want to write a check for a billion dollars, says Garzik, explaining that space innovation will require a complicated system of fundraising, cooperation across multiple parties (who might not trust each other), and an alignment of economic incentives, which are all things at which blockchain is good.
No dollar can survive the vacuum of space. No ones taking dollars in space.
SpaceChains network of smart contracts (using Ethereum) is designed to let multiple parties potentially in adversarial countries conduct transactions in that classic trustless feature of blockchain. Blockchain is kind of a neutral referee between multiple parties, says Garzik. Thats the key concept that I like to worm into peoples brains.
Space Race 2.0, says Pullen, might be less of a race than we think. We keep seeing a narrative of Space Race 2.0, with people asking, is it going to be the U.S., China or Russia? Thats a story that makes people click but Space Race 2.0 is probably going to be a relay race, with people passing the baton back and forth, he says, as the sprawling challenges will create a sharing economy. And the best way to set up a sharing economy is with blockchain. And then, if we succeed in setting up colonies in space? They will need a currency. No dollar can survive the vacuum of space, says Pullen. No ones taking dollars in space. Bitcoin or pick your favorite cryptocurrency could be the logical solution.
Then theres the flip side to this coin. While SpaceChain uses blockchain technology to advance space exploration, others are using space to improve blockchain technology. This brings us to Blockstream. Founded by longtime cypherpunk Adam Back (inventor of Hashcash, a precursor to Bitcoin), Blockstreams network of satellites allows anyone, anywhere on the planet, to transact in bitcoin. No internet required.
Those new to bitcoin often ask the question, What happens if the internet goes down? After all, outages happen. Equipment can malfunction. So if the internet breaks? Theres a Bitcoin satellite network broadcasting the bitcoin blockchain that continues to work, even when large parts of the internet are damaged and offline, says Back. Or lets imagine a nation with political strife, where an authoritarian government muzzles the internet. In this event, says Back, being able to transact with bitcoin could become of critical importance to pay for daily goods in a disrupted market, where card networks may cease to function, or to pay for emergency transport to a less dangerous locale.
Bitcoin-via-satellite offers a few other advantages. Blockstream Satellite brings bitcoin users more privacy as it is a passive, receive-only service, says Chris Cook, who heads up the Blockstream Satellite project. Unlike with the Bitcoin [peer-to-peer] network, there are no other peers that can discover your IP address and potentially geo-locate your house address via mapping services.
It could also improve energy consumption. Blockstream leverages its satellites for their own mining operations both as a backup connection to the Bitcoin network, and for remote areas where they cant connect to the internet. That could be a glimpse of the future. Blockstream eventually aims to launch a satellite-based mining service, which will let anyone run a mining farm in a remote location. We hope this will allow miners to access stranded and isolated energy that may be unused, or used inefficiently, says Cook. In theory, this could spark new investments in renewable energy. For example, if you have solar panels and a Blockstream satellite connection, you could mine bitcoin in the middle of the desert.
From the desert to the outer cosmos, its possible blockchain is ideally positioned to facilitate the new economics of space. One knock on blockchain is its a solution in search of a problem a way to create an idyllic financial model when the old one still kind of works, more or less. Banks have their flaws but the system is functional, or at least quasi-functional for many. But in outer space? Theres no economic model yet. In space there is, quite literally, a void.
Why couldnt that void be filled by blockchain? This could be, as Garzik puts it, science fiction becoming science fact.
See the original post here:
Consensus 2021: To Boldly Go Where Bitcoin Has Never Been - CoinDesk - CoinDesk
- 'For All Mankind' season 4 episode 1 review: Lots of moving parts ... - Space.com - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- Five Surprisingly Perfect Song and Sci-Fi Book Pairings - tor.com - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- Retired Apollo program physcist to speak at First Colony Branch ... - Fort Bend Star - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- Have Elon Musk Been To Mars? - TickerTV News - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- The Bodily Indignities of the Space Life - The New York Times - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- Can Elon Musk Buy The Moon? - TickerTV News - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- Report: SpaceX Safety Lapses Leading to Severe Staff Injuries - Gizmodo - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- Luke O'Neill: 'Diverse' group needed to form Mars colony - Newstalk - September 29th, 2023 [September 29th, 2023]
- Lessons learned from first season with pitch timer, new MLB rules - MLB.com - September 29th, 2023 [September 29th, 2023]
- Opinion | Elon Musk, Geoff Hinton, and the War Over A.I. - The New York Times - September 29th, 2023 [September 29th, 2023]
- Warhammer 40K: The Imperium Is Ignoring A Lot Of STCs Sitting ... - BoLS - September 29th, 2023 [September 29th, 2023]
- Every Major City & Town In Starfield, Ranked By Vibes - Screen Rant - September 29th, 2023 [September 29th, 2023]
- Starfield Could Learn A Lot From Fallout: New Vegas' Wild Wasteland - DualShockers - September 29th, 2023 [September 29th, 2023]
- 'Tech Week' summer program concludes at Kurn Hattin Homes for ... - Brattleboro Reformer - August 14th, 2023 [August 14th, 2023]
- The 'Reality Check' Era Of The EV Transition Is Upon Us - The Autopian - August 14th, 2023 [August 14th, 2023]
- Humanity's Return To The Moon And The Prospect Of South Pole ... - Hackaday - August 14th, 2023 [August 14th, 2023]
- The Biggest Horror Movie Flops of the 2000s - MovieWeb - July 26th, 2023 [July 26th, 2023]
- The Future of Space Exploration: Upcoming Missions, Technologies ... - Medium - July 26th, 2023 [July 26th, 2023]
- Steam free games: download and keep 12 titles right now - GAMINGbible - July 26th, 2023 [July 26th, 2023]
- Elon Musk Emerges as the Wealthiest Individual on Earth - Clayton County Register - July 26th, 2023 [July 26th, 2023]
- I'm Hooked on The Banished Vault's Bad Times Generation - Paste Magazine - July 26th, 2023 [July 26th, 2023]
- Everything We Know About Stars On Mars - Screen Rant - May 31st, 2023 [May 31st, 2023]
- United Arab Emirates Announces New Mission to the Asteroid Belt - Sky & Telescope - May 31st, 2023 [May 31st, 2023]
- Best space settlement games: Manage bases & build cities on other ... - Space.com - May 31st, 2023 [May 31st, 2023]
- Dr. Bruce Bugbee Returns to Cannabis Conference to Share Latest ... - Cannabis Business Times - May 31st, 2023 [May 31st, 2023]
- 25 states Americans visit the most | | thewetumpkaherald.com - Wetumpka Herald - May 31st, 2023 [May 31st, 2023]
- 25 Best Blockbusters of the 2010s, Ranked - Collider - May 31st, 2023 [May 31st, 2023]
- Inside Bungie's First Ship Beset by Aliens and Rogue AI - The UESC ... - BoLS - May 31st, 2023 [May 31st, 2023]
- Starship Explodes During Test Flight: What to Know About SpaceX's ... - Smithsonian Magazine - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- "Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly": Image Shows the Moment ... - Inverse - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- Did the Curiosity rover find alien bones on Mars? - Syfy - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- SpaceX releases simulation video of trip to Mars - Travel Tomorrow - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- Fired on Mars cast: Who stars in the animated comedy series - Hidden Remote - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- Thanks to NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, you can now circumnavigate the Martian surface - Syfy - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- Interpreting the space travel craze | WORLD - WORLD News Group - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- From Wall Street to the Vatican, no one has been spared Twitters paid blue tick policy - The Economic Times - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- 6 best meme coins to buy in 2023 | Bitcoinist.com - Bitcoinist - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- Ved Chirayath is on a mission to map the worlds oceans - Newswise - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- 10 Movies to Watch if You Loved 2001: A Space odyssey - MovieWeb - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- This nonprofit wants to reduce plastic waste one Austin business at ... - KUT - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- To the countryside or into outer space? 1970s utopias about escaping the city - Domus IT - February 2nd, 2023 [February 2nd, 2023]
- Tiverton firm making more parachute fabric for Mars - January 25th, 2023 [January 25th, 2023]
- Goofy Mars Rock Spotted by NASA Rover Might Be a Meteorite - January 17th, 2023 [January 17th, 2023]
- Mars rover Perseverance spots Ingenuity helicopter resting on sand dune ... - January 17th, 2023 [January 17th, 2023]
- Newsroom Discovery, Inc. - December 26th, 2022 [December 26th, 2022]
- Nostradamus' New Year 2023 Predictions: From Cannibalism On Earth And World War 3; Heres Some Shocking Claims Made By The French Astrologer - SpotboyE - December 26th, 2022 [December 26th, 2022]
- Mars Base Simulation in Poland to Lock People in a Habitat ... - Insider - December 21st, 2022 [December 21st, 2022]
- Colonizing Mars: Practicing Other Worlds on Earth | Origins - December 21st, 2022 [December 21st, 2022]
- You Can Build Colonies On Moon, Mars, With Help From... - NDTV - December 16th, 2022 [December 16th, 2022]
- The death of Twitter has dragged on too long. Please, Elon, put us out of our misery - The Guardian - December 4th, 2022 [December 4th, 2022]
- Musk trial over Tesla pay package looks considers his attention span and his friendships with board members - Los Angeles Times - November 19th, 2022 [November 19th, 2022]
- What happens if you grow plants on the Moon? New study shows how they react - Interesting Engineering - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Visualized: The Best Universities in America - Visual Capitalist - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Build and defend a base on an alien world in this surprisingly deep survival sim - PC Gamer - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Elon Musk and ex-lover Grimes believed she was an IMAGINARY character created to be his perfect g... - The US Sun - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- SpaceX Mars program - Wikipedia - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Human mission to Mars - Wikipedia - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Underground Microbes May Have Existed in Ancient Mars [Study] - Nature World News - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Elon Musk dreams of dying on Marsnow he might be one of the pioneering colonists - Fortune - October 11th, 2022 [October 11th, 2022]
- Twitter Employees are SHOOK Once Again About Elon Musk's Takeover, Even as the Deal Might Still Fall Through - Barstool Sports - October 11th, 2022 [October 11th, 2022]
- Exclusive First Preview Garbage Pail Kids: Mad Mike And The Quest For Stale Gum - Game Informer - October 11th, 2022 [October 11th, 2022]
- Artificial Gravity Lowers Spaceflight's Health Toll on Fruit Flies - Intelligent Living - October 11th, 2022 [October 11th, 2022]
- Dinner on Mars: How to grow food when humans colonize the red planet - CBC.ca - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Why the Space Race Isn't the Answer to the Climate Crisis - Green Queen Media - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Garbage Pail Kids: Mad Mike And The Quest For Stale Gum coming to consoles and PC as well as the NES - Real Otaku Gamer - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- 15 film recommendations for Indy's Heartland Film Festival - IndyStar - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Nasa investigating mystery object that has attached itself to Mars helicopter... - The US Sun - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- History mars ties between queen, ex-colony Cyprus - Breitbart - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Mars looks blinding as Webb telescope zooms in on Red Planet for the first time - India Today - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Space cement could be used to build houses on Mars and the Moon - Interesting Engineering - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- From space to the third world war, these are Nostradamus's top 5 predictions for 2023 - News Day Express - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- More People Need to Watch The Absolute Best Sci-Fi Show on Prime Video - CNET - August 2nd, 2022 [August 2nd, 2022]
- Should We Create a Permanent Base On The Moon? Explorersweb - ExplorersWeb - August 2nd, 2022 [August 2nd, 2022]
- Heres Why NFTs Are Poised To Witness Hypergrowth, Per John G - News Ghana - August 2nd, 2022 [August 2nd, 2022]
- 6/30 Flashback: It's the freakiest show | Fred Clark - Patheos - June 30th, 2022 [June 30th, 2022]
- WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion UnicornThe fantasy of kibbutz capitalism - WSWS - June 30th, 2022 [June 30th, 2022]
- The Ultimate Guide To An Adventurous Antarctica Vacation - Maxim - Maxim - June 30th, 2022 [June 30th, 2022]
- NASA Astronauts Prepare For Mission To Mars By Spending Year Living In Simulated Colony On Venus - The Onion - June 15th, 2022 [June 15th, 2022]
- Build on Mars and get rewarded: Mars4 releases their first game demo - AMBCrypto News - June 15th, 2022 [June 15th, 2022]
- Elon Musk, Mars and the Holy Shechinah - Yated.com - June 15th, 2022 [June 15th, 2022]