Payment made using Lightning Network has been successfully sent via the satellite. This is a breakthrough event – an important step in making the bitcoin network independent.
Lightning Network in space
The project uses satellite communication technology. It was used in the implementation of the transaction that occurred in the Lightning Network network. It’s not just a “empty” test. It is about making the bitcoin network and increasing its availability. The new innovation shows clearly: BTC can work independently of earthly Internet providers. Therefore, blockchain’s dependence on centralized networks has been reduced.
The test uses AMSAT-DL, a platform for satellite communication to broadcast transactions in Lightning Network.
It is worth adding that Lightning Network has been designed for fast and cheap micropayments. Thanks to the effective processing of payments via a satellite relay, we receive new possibilities of using Bitcoin in distant regions of the world and in situations where internet access is none or unreliable. Bitcoin also becomes a project that no longer knows – and literally – borders and provides us with the possibility of paying even in very extreme conditions – from places where natural disasters occurred, to space. In the era of preparing for more frequent flights outside the earthly orbit, this seems quite intriguing.
Bitcoin currency in the world of Elon Musk
The use of Bitcoin in space does not seem unreal today. And it’s not even about the experiment. Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, has a plan to colonize Mars.
At the beginning of 2024, the businessman announced that the first unmanned ship would land on the Red Planet in the next five years. This would mean that before 2030 he would start studying the planet. After another two years, he wants to send the first colonizers to it. This year, however, he corrected his plan: he wants to send unmanned Starship ships with Optimus robots to Mars at the end of 2026 in Starbase, the Texan SpaceX center, today a technology is to be created to help transfer humanity to another planet. So it is possible that we will see the colonization of space. It also sheds new light on the interest in Musk with cryptocurrencies.
