With the launch of spacebit.live, the Blockstream satellite, a project years in the making, is now enabling cosmic comments in space.
With just a few satoshis (the smallest unit of Bitcoin), a satellite can disseminate a message, regardless of the message’s content. However, it is impossible to predict who will read the message, so… calling all inhabitants of interplanetary space! Anyone listening…?
One optimistic message suggested that users were still adjusting to the Lightning Network, the second-layer technology that Bitcoin users hope will significantly improve transaction scalability and cost efficiency:
“So, I’ve quit my job, I have enough money to get by, and I’m constructing my first Raspberry Pi lightning node and broadcasting satellite messages. still feels surreal on occasion. “
The initial concept was to make Bitcoin available to individuals without internet access. There is now a simple website that users can use to send messages via satellite across the globe, using Bitcoin fractions as payment. Blockstream users appear to be busy sending messages into the ether, and MediumSqueeze, a crypto observer, suggests that the technology could take off if it moves to Bitcoin’s live network soon.
“Blockstream made available an API that accepts a message and returns a lightning network invoice; upon receipt of the invoice, the message is sent to the satellite teleport, and the payload is then transmitted to the satellite array.”
It is still difficult to comprehend, that I’m blanketing a large portion of the Earth with my message, on demand, instantly, “an astral blogger wrote,” essentially summing up the fact that there are not yet many people using the feature. I wonder if anyone has read this message.
The concept is still in the experimental phase at present. Messages and images can be charged based on their data content; the longer the text or the presence of an image, the higher the fee paid via Bitcoin’s developing Lightning Network.
How do you tune in? A satellite receiver costing less than $100 should suffice. With spacebit.live and the Blockstream API, it is possible to send messages.
This farewell message demonstrates that someone has great faith in Bitcoin: “Without Bitcoin, I wouldn’t have much faith in the future. I anticipate telling this story to my grandchildren one day. “Perhaps in a post-civilization wasteland, however.”
Where will Bitcoin go from here?