Bitcoins in space!

[sile16]

should be able to run NXT on there as it takes much less resources....

[matthewh3]

I think it'd be worthwhile making the satellite ground station also being HF tranceiver nodes using Q15X25 modulation - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q15X25 - or similar.

[benjamindees]

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-07/31/nasa-validates-impossible-space-drive

The device uses a magnetron producing microwaves directed inside a specially shaped, fully enclosed tapering high Q resonant cavity whose area is greater at one end, upon which radiation pressure would act differently due to a relativistic effect caused by the action of group velocity in different frames of reference. The inventor claims that the device generates a thrust even though no detectable energy leaves the device. If proven to work as claimed, the EmDrive could allow the design of spacecraft engines that would be electrically powered and would require no reaction mass.

Might want to hold off on the final design for a couple of years.

[jgarzik]

Just held an 8-hour Preliminary Design Review (PDR) with Deep Space Industries, covering all major subsystems, ground station details, power/link/etc. budgets.

Lots going on behind the scenes, as this contract with Deep Space Industries proceeds.

[Jungian]

Just held an 8-hour Preliminary Design Review (PDR) with Deep Space Industries, covering all major subsystems, ground station details, power/link/etc. budgets.

Lots going on behind the scenes, as this contract with Deep Space Industries proceeds.

Very cool! Thanks for keeping us updated

[marcus_of_augustus]

Just held an 8-hour Preliminary Design Review (PDR) with Deep Space Industries, covering all major subsystems, ground station details, power/link/etc. budgets.

Lots going on behind the scenes, as this contract with Deep Space Industries proceeds.

Great work Jeff.

[halorose]

Cool!really cool .  awesome

[MasterOwel]

This is a really crazy... awesome... intriguing idea. Every thing interesting and everything that bitcoin is. Kudos for the project, great idea.

[syedkarim]

I just wanted to give a quick update regarding our own data broadcasting project. We are currently operational and are broadcasting across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Although small satellites do have their use case for telecommunications, from the perspective of getting a broadcast up and running and delivering a fast stream, you just can't beat geostationary satellites. Here's a quick overview of the system:

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-g-outernet-explained-20140808-htmlstory.html

https://www.outernet.is/pages/how-to

Right now we are broadcasting Wikipedia and Project Gutenberg eBooks. Bitcoin blockchain information is in the pipeline; it's just a matter of increasing the bandwidth on the satellite. Does anyone have any suggestions on what kind of data rate would be useful for this kind of broadcast ticker?

[jgarzik]

Currently stuck in ITAR queue, waiting for US State Dept. to clear things which non-US people already known about and have access to...

[syedkarim]

What kind of data rates are you hoping to achieve with your cubesat? I think small satellites definitely have their place, but we are currently running a broadcast data service over all of North America, Europe, and MENA and have a minimum continuously bitrate of 56 kbps. We'll soon have access to a 50 Mbps channel and will be fully global. It's tough to get those kinds of numbers with small satellites, mostly due to power and heat issues.

Of course, we need a lot more bandwidth because we are a general platform for broadcast data; bitcoin blockchain broadcasting will only be a small slice of the overall data carousel.

youtube.com/watch?v=jNx3vDSuzkY

[matthewh3]

Kryptoradio are broadcasting blockchain data in a 7.5kbps channel on the UHF band using the DVB-T1(or possibly)T2 codec in Finland.  Using the Digital Radio Mondiale codec you could broadcast =>7.1kbps over a 5kHz channel on SW/MW/LW.  Although renting SW transmitter broadcast time costs around $25k per month for 24/7/365 broadcasts.  5kHZ though is about a quarter of the bandwidth that current AM radio broadcast stations use on MW or LW.

Another idea to look at terrestrial broadcasts although this time with full duplex is UHF IEEE 802.11ah meshnetworks.  With a good external antenna you could get very good local range at 900Mhz so it could really work well for mesh-networking.  The first IEEE 802.11ah chips are supposed to come out next year while the protocol should be finalised by 2016.  Plus it's an unlicensed band so no one would need a ham license to set up a low power node.

[jvol]

lets first settle bitcoin on earth...

[xmasdobo]

In case the goverment goes nuts about Bitcoin and decides to shut down the entire internet, satilletes launched by fat Bitcoin whales could be what saves the day.

[jgarzik]

An ad in USA Today's NASA special edition: http://imgur.com/RMdY7EM

[marcus_of_augustus]

An ad in USA Today's NASA special edition: http://imgur.com/RMdY7EM

- Open Source Space

- Space-as-a-Service (SaaS)

- Wire the solar system for networking

- Data centers on Luna and Mars

luv it! 

[marcus_of_augustus]

Also some of these ideas are worth discussing as they have implications for significantly changing the computational resources required for a fully-validating bitcoin node ... and thus h/ware requirements for the BitSat cubes most likely.

https://bitcoinfoundation.org/2014/10/a-scalability-roadmap/

Particularly, whether the BitSat would carry the full blockchain or hashed UTXO with a confirmed depth only?

[jgarzik]

Particularly, whether the BitSat would carry the full blockchain or hashed UTXO with a confirmed depth only?

As revealed at June's Bitcoin Beltway conference, the BitSat satellites will carry the full blockchain, and fully validate every block sent to it.

This is in contrast with other systems that simply broadcast a datastream without validation, and therefore require much higher levels of trust than with BitSat.

[TheButterZone]

Particularly, whether the BitSat would carry the full blockchain or hashed UTXO with a confirmed depth only?

As revealed at June's Bitcoin Beltway conference, the BitSat satellites will carry the full blockchain, and fully validate every block sent to it.

This is in contrast with other systems that simply broadcast a datastream without validation, and therefore require much higher levels of trust than with BitSat.

Is it going to be bootstrapped as high as possible before launch, or will it have to download the entire blockchain while in orbit? LOL

[jgarzik]

Is it going to be bootstrapped as high as possible before launch, or will it have to download the entire blockchain while in orbit? LOL

heh, definitely loading the chain prior to launch.  That's part of the pre-flight tests in fact.