One of the key tenets is that bitcoin block data is easy to distribute widely. Information wants to be free. One of the ways we may keep bitcoin healthy and free is finding alternative ways to distribute block chain data. This provides resilience in case the P2P mesh network is attacked.
My personal favorite is satellite distribution, something I have been working on quietly in the background. Satellites means one of two things:
- 1. Buy some bandwidth on an existing satellite.
- 2. Launch your own satellite.
Buying bandwidth is the most cost-effective, and readily attainable method today. However, not just any satellite channel will do. Bitcoin requires a dedicated, one-to-many broadcast mechanism. This is like renting a TV channel -- although at much lower bandwidth requirements (1MB every minute or two).
Nanosatellites have recently cut satellite costs down from the absurd, traditional $20m+ build, $50m+ launch. There is now a standardized
cubesat size. Two innovations reduced launch costs down into the $100k's range: (1) Many organizations collaborate together (rideshare), paying a portion of the launch cost. Sometimes 27 or more cubesats are launched at once. (2) These clusters of cubesats are launched as a secondary payload. A primary payload has priority, which means secondary payloads are sometimes not launched into a proper orbit. With these two factors, cubesat construction and launch is lowered to a reachable price: $2m or so.
Several people, including some investors, in the bitcoin community have privately expressed interest. It seemed like a good time to move forward with Phase 1 of the project.
Phase 1 is: flesh out cubesat specifications, research leased bandwidth pricing, and specific data needs (xmit tech, frequencies). The initial goal is broadcasting worldwide (or at least major continents) the latest bitcoin block, over and over again. Stretch goals include broadcasting recent chains, recent TX's, and other data.
A word about government involvement: Set expectations properly. There are three points at which government is inevitably involved, at some level: (a) getting launch approval, (b) ground station(s) inevitably must be located in some useful geolocation, and (c) frequency selection. Fundamentally, these satellites will be broadcasting public, not-encrypted blockchain data, so the content should not be an issue.
Donations accepted at
1M9MyyPsAak7zRjW4D96pTxDaAEpDDZLR7Feb 05 update:Project update #1:
PermalinkBitSat architecture, v0.1:
PermalinkFiles posted on
http://bitsat.org/#/docsSponsors (1 BTC or more):
- Mohit Kalra (2 BTC, May 2014)
- Unknown (1 BTC, Apr 2014)
- http://www.redstarmining.com/ (1 BTC, Jan 2014)
- Roger Ver (5 BTC, Dec 2013)
- Erik Voorhees (5 BTC, Dec 2013)
- Rusty Russell (1 BTC, Dec 2013)
- BitcoinGrant.org (25 BTC, Nov 2013)
- Jeff Garzik (1 BTC, Nov 2013)
Standard disclaimer: This is a personal project. Nothing to do with my employer.