Jeff Garzik, founder of Spacechain speaks about how Spacechain plans to take Blockchain to space. He also provides insight as to why it would be of benefit to have Blockchain in space.
With the space industry rocketing in value to US$423.8 billion in 2019, a number of startup companies are vying for a piece of the action. Blockchain, experts say, can fuel the commercial space race by opening up access to the market.
“With blockchain… spacecraft move from single owner to multi-owner, from single tenant to multi-tenant, from single application to multi-application, that unlocks so many more economic possibilities, startup possibilities,” Jeff Garzik, SpaceChain’s co-founder and chief technology officer, told Forkast.News.
“Not just SpaceChain, but what other space startups are doing as well, is leading to kind of a new space race, where startups, entrepreneurs see the opportunity,” Garzik said. “They also see that now it’s accessible to someone who’s not a millionaire, and who just has a great idea and they can start a business and succeed.”
SpaceChain is aiming to build an open-source satellite network to enable a next-generation infrastructure for blockchain industry in outer space. According to SpaceChain’s white paper, the goal of having blockchain nodes in space is to improve the physical security of transactions.
Blockchain could allow satellites, space shuttles and other future machinery in space to compartmentalize operations and requests from businesses and ordinary users on Earth in a more secure manner than existing systems, potentially creating a new economic model where more people have access to resources in space.
“You can send some tokens, some space dollars, and you can trigger one of the SpaceChain network satellites to perform some Earth observation — to take some pictures,” Garzik said.
According to a report by the Space Foundation, the global space industry grew to US$423.8 billion last year, which was more than US$9 billion over the previous year. From that figure, commercial revenue in the space industry reached US$336.89 billion, signaling growing business activity.
“As we move out into the solar system, into space, those economic interconnections, assuming they’re robust, will mean that these businesses thrive… and with blockchain being a secure economic layer, there’s just a natural fit with space business,” Garzik said.
Blockchain’s transparency and immutability could also foster greater trust in business transactions occurring in outer space.
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