It's interesting times.
Jeff Garzik wants to bring bitcoin to space with small sattelites.
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/14069/interview-jeff-garzik-bitcoin-space/When we're talking about distributed systems, I noticed Matternet. It's a US company developing a program were goods like medicines etc. can be delivered cheaply over long distances, and they plan to make a delivery network of drones.
http://matternet.us/Could not also this be done to quickly deploy any meshnet/mobile network, in the event of a nuclear winter or after disasters to restore comms and facilitate payments?
Also in rural areas, where network accessibility is not that good, would it be possible to have low cost flying drones that could fly out, then attach themselves to a tree or similar structure to be a semi-permanent node in a mesh-network?
If it was possible, such drones could be powered by sun energy for example, and go down to rest and recharge, until they reach their final destination.
Also, it would be possible to distribute paper wallets, which would be completely off chain transactions. Once it arrives at its destination, the funds could be swiped, or just kept in the paper wallet if the receiver trusts the sender.
Also, such a matternet could be used to send spare-parts to remote bitcoin miners etc.
Another interesting concept is that matter, or paper wallets could easily be transferred across borders, essentially giving freedom back to the individuals to conduct free trade. If you live in a country where the ruler cuts off the grid, there's an EMP-attack, you could still send out a transaction as a paper wallet.
Perhaps pidgeons would be better, but they can only fly home. A drone can fly anywhere it's programmed to go.
Also, cash could be transferred in with drones.
A currency exchanger could offer to sell cash against bitcoin. If you trusted the seller, you would first send bitcoins to him. Once he has received the bitcoins, he dispatches the drone, which will deliver the cash to its destination. I don't see this as a problem with a reputable seller. This could be used in cities for example. You need Fiat cash, then send 1 BTC to Drone-seller ltd. and indicate where you want to do the pickup. To indicate that the person picking up the delivery is the right person, he might hold up a sign he has printed or a small beacon sending a radio signal, that the drone can use to verify that the right person gets the delivery.
Likewise a person might sell cash for bitcoins by either investing in his own delivery drone, or by ordering a drone-transaction. Then a drone would arrive to pick up the cash, and once it has returned, and the trader has verified the cash to be legit, the bitcoins will be dispatched. Again, you would need to trust the the trader. However, with a reputation system, it would be hard for anyone to become a repeat scammer.
The positive aspect of this is that it removes the, draw gun, threaten counterparty scenario. Also another idea is in the event of travelling with cash on a US highway, you could have a follow-drone that looks like a bird, and follows the car at a distance carrying the cash, or it could be one of those slow moving drones that rests to recharge, and that will find its own way home.
For example, it would be possible to program a drone to travel from let's say
Washington DC to San Diego by using GPS and a sophisticated algorithm that takes into account the map, terrain, weather etc., any time it needs to rest, it simply finds a safe place and goes into resting mode. Once the drone approaches it's home, the owner might prepare a suitable landing spot, perhaps even guiding it with a beacon signal or similar. For example, you could have a small drone-opening at the wall of your barn, so the drone can fly in and park safely.
Of course such technology is very advanced, but in the future, one day there will be iphones of drones that will be your personal assistant. When you need eggs, you go to a website, check the egg availability locally, the drone then flies over to a neighboorhood farm or delivery facility, and the farmer/worker puts 5 eggs in the basket and the drone returns shortly thereafter. Most likely the delivery drones will be maintained by the corporations offering delivery service.
See this video for a great presentation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yEl0-bCA9MSuch a drone delivery system could also deliver mining-equipment, harddrives, cpu's and other computer equipment. And of course, delivery of medicines, food and other necessities.
Not to mention that some people would find nefarious uses for it, and yet others would start hunting drones. It's quite the spectacular future.
Also, delivery to islands near the cost, deliveries to areas where there's been flooding, or it's otherwise difficult to move on the ground, all of thease are great uses for drones that will help humanity.
And not to mention the fact that if somebody in deed developed the long travelling drone, that would act much as a bird in that it would fly, rest and recharge before it continued, coupled with bitcoins, we truly would have an entire new world with private freedom were you could pay for your merchandise with bitcoin, and have it delivered to any destination of your chosing without going through the hassle of customs. Perhaps it would even be possible to create a smart-network where drones that have delivered gods from departure A to destination B, would reload a new load at departure B before it delivers it to destination C. There could be a distributed system where the location of the nodes are updated, so one could order a "delivery slot" with bitcoins. And of course there could be stealth deliveries, where a drone only announced it's presence once it has completed a mission.
In short, hopefully it would be possible to create a sustainable matternet, where no fossil fuel was used.
What do you all think, did you get any interesting ideas from this? Obviously a lot of R&D is needed, and it seems like currently lots of resources are spent on millitary appliances, but I think the humanitary aspects of this is very interesting. I think this is another technology that will change the world, along with bitcoin.
