Bitcoin pioneer joins mini-sat rush

One of Bitcoin’s creators and “core developer” Jeff Garzik, says he has confirmed an order for 24 ‘BitSat’ satellites. Confirmation has come from the satellite builders, Deep Space Industries (DSI).

Garzik is also involved with Dunvegan Space and a year ago he announced that he was developing the satellites as part of a scheme to create a secure back-up for the currency’s growing number of users.

“Just as Bitcoin is revolutionizing financial exchanges, Dunvegan will do the same for space systems with this project,” said CEO Jeff Garzik. “To do it right we needed a partner that was both visionary and technically capable. Once I began to work with Deep Space we realised we had found that partner.”

The mini-sats will cost $1 million each, and a total of $19 million for the full constellation. The Wall Street Journal says the proposed Cube-sats measure just 10cm x 10cm x 30cm. It is not yet clear as to who might launch the satellites, nor the timetable, nor the frequencies, nor whether the satellites have ITU clearances to operate.

Deep Space Industries says the initial design work for the BitSats was completed in August last year and construction is due to start “soon” with launches “hopefully” in Q4/2015 or Q1/2016.

“DSI’s long term goal of harvesting space resources is well known, and our first steps involve developing nimble, low cost spacecraft that turn out to be very similar to the needs of Dunvegan,” said DSI CEO Daniel Faber. “Partnering with DSS on the BitSat project allows DSI to ramp up production of our spacecraft avionics suite and implement several improvements. It’s a perfect match all around.”