One Small Step for Bitcoin – SpaceChain Secured Transfer From International Space Station
Blockchain
www.coindesk.com
18 August 2020 14:43, UTC
Reading time: ~1 m
SpaceChain, the UK crypto firm with extraterrestrial aspirations, has secured a $90 bitcoin transfer with its multi-signature transaction hardware orbiting Earth every 90 minutes.
- SpaceChain's International Space Station-hosted (ISS) hardware authorized a 0.0099 BTC transfer initiated by Chief Technology Officer Jeff Garzik on June 26, the decentralization company disclosed Tuesday.
- Developed by GomSpace and installed on the ISS on June 25, that hardware holds a private key needed to verify blockchain transactions via the "multi-signature" technique.
- Data can only reach the ISS via the craft's encrypted ground station links. SpaceChain says this adds security and resilience to transaction authorizations.
- Representatives did not immediately answer CoinDesk's questions as to why a transaction initiated on June 26 was only made public nearly two months later.
- Although the ISS hardware cannot communicate with other crafts, SpaceChain hopes to build and launch robust decentralized blockchain infrastructure that can do so.
Read more: A Bitcoin Wallet Is Orbiting the Earth at 5 Miles Per Second
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