Qtum and SpaceChain’s satellites, OS bring nodes to space and decentralization to nanosats
Of all the imaginative projects I saw at Consensus 2018, none matched my enthusiasm as much as SpaceChain. “Blockchain in Space” might sound kind of cliché, but it’s accurate. And after interviewing the company’s founder, I’m confident they are on the brink of something monumental.
The founding team includes CEO Zheng Zuo and CTO Jeff Garzik, a key Bitcoin core developer. SpaceX and Tesla investor Tim Draper is also an investor and core business advisor. They’re well-funded, but neglect to make public the amount of money they have raised.
“We claim we’re a blockchain space company,” Zheng told me, but they are a little more nuanced than that. “We want to build a decentralized space agency, a crowdfunding model to support space missions.”
The concept sounds simpler than it would be to implement. Zheng, who spoke with me at Consensus in the Bloq meet-up room. The plan is gloriously complex, both pursuing infrastructure provision for blockchain projects AND support for decentralized collaboration of space-bound startups (primarily those using nanosatellites, which are the primary driver of these space ventures).
Their first major gambit was the February launch of a cube satellite hosting a node on Qtum blockchain, the first such node operating in space according to Zheng. The SpaceChain coin (SPC) is a Qtum standard token (what Zheng affectionately calls a “QRC20") with about 515 million in circulating supply.
“We chose Qtum because it’s a PoS model (Proof-of-Stake) consuming less energy,” as opposed to the energy-intensive PoW model (Proof-of-Work), a calculation similarly at the heart of Orbs’ thinking. As a result, Qtum is a close partner and the Qtum Foundation one of SpaceChain’s investors. Their technical advisor is Qtum Founder and CEO Patrick Dai; strategy advisor is Bloq Co-Founder Matthew Roszak; and space advisor Nanoracks CEO Jeffrey Manber.
The next phase of the project is where things get really interesting.
“We’re building a constellation of satellites with a decentralized infrastructure. Instead of one company launching a constellation, we’re developing a shared communication protocol that all these companies can have a multi-vendor, multi-jurisdiction constellation.”
In that respect, the main focus of SpaceChain is to apply the decentralization model to the burgeoning field as a whole.
As Zheng explains, many startups launching these small satellites can only afford to send one or two up on their budget, as opposed to a larger startup like Planet which can send several dozen. With proper integration, several smaller players can combine their efforts to compete with the bigger competitors.
This is where SpaceChain’s OS comes in.
“We are an open-source android for satellites; a smart contract platform over a real-time kernel, OS.”
The time it takes to plan a mission and satellite launch, plus rather commonplace launch delays and fast-moving changes in the tech industry, makes for a long turn-around cycle that can have adverse effects on these small satellites.
“No one has thought about building space apps by themselves, but now they can build apps for satellites here. It’s already open-source on Github.”
With the OS, Zheng hopes to see the launch of projects we can only imagine, providing a “hyper-secure” sandbox that allows “multi-tenant satellite operation access.”
Zheng puts it plainly that “Before Android or iOS, you could play Snake on your phone. That was pretty much it. Who knows what’s gonna happen now. That’s the thing.”
“Previously like manufacturers decide on whats going into phone, manufacturers decide what goes into a satellite. This changes that.”
As the OS gets off the ground, SpaceChain plans additional nanosatellites on a steady schedule. A second satellite will also serve as a node on a yet-to-be-decided blockchain, possibly more than one. That launch should be in October or November.
Their main office is in Singapore with 28 full-time employees and about 40 contractors working on their engineering projects. Jenga, HQ Capital, RUNZHE Capital, and LST Capital are also on their investor list.
How much control do they have over the future of space-based development? Just like Google and Android encouraged novel uses of the world’s most important smartphone OS, SpaceChain is trying to steer the controls.
“We’re incubating other projects. We made the Android sort to speak,. now we’re encouraging other people to build on that ‘Android.’ We’re integrating those apps. We’re launching their apps into space.”
“Most importantly we bring more talent into the industry. If you can have a lot of people making space apps and they’re profitable, then we can make it easy and make it open-sourced.”
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