The company behind the crypto-satellite module launched in May has announced that an additional piece of blockchain-related infrastructure is entering Earth’s orbit.
According to the announcement, one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicles carried a “cryptographically equipped” Cryptosat satellite – called Crypto2 – into orbit on January 3. The addition of Crypto2 to the company’s constellation of satellites is part of an effort to make space a “new battleground for the search for bulletproof cryptography” by expanding computing power.
“The launch of Crypto2 gives us more availability and stronger specs to support the growing portfolio of use cases in our development pipeline,” said Cryptosat co-founder Yonatan Winetraub.
Speaking to Cointelegraph, Winetraub said some of the use cases the company is exploring with satellites include encrypting data to a public key and capturing signed timestamps for applications like smart contracts. In addition, the satellite can generate a pair of cryptographic keys and release the private key after a certain time to prevent “premature decryption.”
SpaceX launched the module as part of the Transporter 6 mission, which departed from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 2:56 pm UTC on January 3. In addition to the Cryptosat payload, the Falcon 9 rocket carried 114 satellites into orbit for various purposes. world carrier.
Cointelegraph reported in May that Crypto1 – the first Cryptosat satellite launched – aims to facilitate blockchain applications by providing a physically unreachable, tamper-proof platform. The technology behind the satellite has previously been tested on the International Space Station, or ISS.
“There is a lot of need for this,” Cryptosat co-founder Yan Michalevsky said in May. “If we look for protocols, especially in Web3, there are all financial systems and smart contract systems, a kind of digital legal agreement that depends on cryptographic trust behind it.”
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Other private crypto companies, including SpaceChain and Blockstream, have stepped up as alternative solutions for blockchain validation, multisignature wallets and verifiable delay functions. In 2019, SpaceChain sent technology to the ISS to demonstrate the receipt, authorization and retransmission of blockchain-based transactions. Additionally, crypto users in Brazil are using the Blockstream satellite network to create Bitcoin (BTC) nodes in Earth orbit.