Blockchain: A Quiet Revolution

People initially underestimated a lot of innovations, not realizing how much they would change the world later. An example is 1990, the then boss of Telekom, Ron Sommer, believed: “The Internet is a trick for computer fans, we don’t see a future in it.” In 2007, ex-Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer made a similar statement about the iPhone. As you know, both were wrong.

Then the blockchain appeared, and without attracting much attention began to enter the life of mankind. “Blockchain technology will turn the financial sector upside down, just as electric drive turned the automotive industry upside down,” said Philipp Sandner, head of the Blockchain Center at the Frankfurt School of Financial Management.

Czech publicist Vit Jedliczka went even further. He proclaimed his own state on the deserted shoal of the Danube on the Croatian-Serbian border. As the president of the “Free Republic of Liberland”, he wants to create the first country based on blockchain.

Today, according to Coinmarketrate.com there are more than 14 thousand crypto projects, most of which are built on the blockchain. But the blockchain is not limited only to cryptocurrencies.

Blockchain fever has broken out everywhere. This is discussed at industry conferences, boards of directors of companies attend seminars on blockchain, and medium-sized companies are working on pilot projects. And this affects the entire economy. From insurance to tour groups and banana delivery. The world believed the apologists of the new technology, and the blockchain began to turn our world around, like the Internet at one time.

The next step is the space blockchain

Space organizations such as NASA and ESA, as well as innovative companies are exploring ways to use blockchain technology for their next missions. The first pilot projects, such as SpaceBelt, are already being tested. Expectations are full of ambition. Further…

Cloud Constellation and the Space Tech group hope to use both AI and blockchain to transform the cloud into space.

The breakthrough blockchain technology inspires many technical innovators. The possibilities of meaningful use in space are surprisingly diverse: tokenization of rockets, rocket parts, spacecraft and their payloads, tracking of supply chains of parts of space vehicles and extracted resources, applications for deep space, such as space mining, crowdfunding of space missions, etc. This is the creation of a single self-regulating space management system in which companies use smart contracts to establish and enforce rules for each other.

Using blockchain technology, companies can create so-called service tokens and commercialize data collected during space missions. Among other things, it would be possible to rent a free space in a spaceship to entrepreneurs who, for example, want to transport objects into space.

Blockchain as the basis of satellite networks

In international space travel, efforts are primarily focused on the use of blockchain in low Earth orbit (LEO) and, thus, on the creation of new business models for satellite communications as a service, new cooperation or new ways of managing supply chains in Optimizing space travel. Blockchain offers huge opportunities, especially for satellite networks.

The so-called smart contracts should be highlighted here. They must ensure the launch and operation of satellites, access to transparent information for insurance purposes and the performance of government functions. Examples include the use of blockchain in the process of licensing satellite launches and monitoring space operations.

If, for example, satellites operate on the basis of blockchain, those countries or regions that have not made the necessary large investments in terrestrial networks will also benefit from this technology. This means that the technology can be distributed globally, or in all directions using its satellite network

In fact, experts see two applications of blockchain in space: providing a global, reliable and incorruptible network for the transfer of peripheral computing into space. Blockchain technology is an important starting point for this (in addition to transaction support), reliable network protection.

Cloud services in space

Constellation Corporation plans to use SpaceBelt as Data Security as a Service (DSaaS), a space globally managed network and cloud storage service. Thus, SpaceBelt bypasses vulnerable ground networks in order to significantly reduce the risk of hacker attacks on particularly high-quality and highly sensitive data.

To do this, eight satellites are connected to the network, which offer up to five petabytes of data storage space, and transmit data between different points of the Earth using a laser. Cloud Constellation and the IBM Space Tech group within the SpaceBelt Data Security as a Service (DSaaS) portfolio hope to use both AI and blockchain for cloud transformation in space.

Blockchain allows you to establish a chain of data storage (chronological documentation of evidence). And this is regardless of whether the data is in the data center or is being moved by satellite. In combination with artificial intelligence (AI), it is possible to search for abnormal transactions or attempts at abnormal transactions.

Presumably, government and financial applications, or any organization that processes sensitive data and services many remote locations, as well as receives information from various sources, will become one of the first users of the space block chain.

Implementation problems

Before blockchain applications in orbit become massive, a number of obstacles must first be overcome. One of the biggest problems is that blockchain describes a process-oriented solution in which companies have to agree to a predetermined way of working. In the highly competitive satellite market, where companies are often reluctant to share information, a blockchain project can currently be a serious problem.

Big players like Amazon or Walmart can force their suppliers to stick to their blockchain network because they are their biggest customers. However, this market situation does not apply to satellite manufacturers.

Another problem concerns the hardware differences between ground and space networks. For example, the space blockchain requires equipment with radiation protection. Most of this architecture is also proprietary. Therefore, it will take some time before, for example, processors will appear that can withstand the special requirements in space.

Regardless of operating models, all space blockchain proponents agree on one thing: blockchain applications in space will not only lead to significantly greater efficiency and speed in the administration of space agencies and companies, but also to unprecedented new service models.

Conclusion

So will blockchain change the world? Skepticism is appropriate. When the head of Telekom, Ron Sommer, called the Internet “a trick for computer fans,” in 1990 he was even partly right. This is an old dilemma: which invention really attracts, and which does not, is revealed only in retrospect.

It is quite possible that we will not feel the blockchain in everyday life, unlike the Internet. But it is also quite possible that he will turn the structure of the economy inside out.

Philip Sandner, the well-known researcher, believes in a revolution in administration: “Booking processes, verification of property relations, classical processing – all this can be digitized using blockchain technology. But, in the medium term, this will have a negative impact on employees.” Simply put, this means that many back office processes may soon be managed by a reliable database rather than people.

If you connect the growing network of values, the blockchain, with today’s information network, the Internet, and then add the space industry here, in the end a completely new structure may arise. The motto for this is already clear: “Internet of Values”.

Just as information circulates in a modern network, values can also circulate in this new global network: money, stocks, land, patents, exclusive data of all kinds – safely and in a fraction of a second.

So far, this is nothing more than a vision. But, this is how the World Wide Web began to conquer the world in 1990.