In honor of Neil Armstrong’s “small step,” one company is taking a “giant leap” for blockchain.

On the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, Diana, a blockchain startup, is launching a “lunar registry” that attempts to place the lunar surface on a distributed ledger.

The project is offering collective ownership of Earth’s only natural satellite through dividing the moon into 3,874,204,892 cells encoded on a blockchain by a 3-word address. Proof of stake in this “cadastral map” is represented by two tokens, dia and mond.

We come in pieces

Following the launch of the Diana blockchain, the startup also plans to develop a decentralized autonomous organization and eventually an exchange to build an economy around the orbital celestial object.

Dia, a native token distributed upon registration, will be exchangeable with mond, intended for transactions. Accordingly, registration costs will increase as more tokens are sold, which will “boost” the value of tokens for market participants and prevent speculation.

Fifty percent of the tokens will be made publicly available, while less than 2 percent will be reserved for the founders and development team, and the rest will act as a reserve.

Tokens will be held in “noun.verb.noun” addresses. “diana.love.BTS, i.am.yourfather, and amstrong.land.Moon,” are given as possible examples.

The dark side of the moon

The project’s white paper quotes Article II of the UN Outer Space Treaty:

“Outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.”

Yet, the founders point out this treaty says nothing about “private ownership” or parceling of the solar system, noting that many sovereign nations, like China, and capital-rich corporations, like Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, are gearing up to explore – and perhaps monopolize – humanity’s shared heritage.

The project leads think this next-gen space race will inevitably lead to the question of “who owns the moon.”

“Given the increased possibility of ownership disputes,” Diana is currently offering tokenized ownership of the visible lunar surface – a chance for everyone to get a slice.

As part of the project roadmap, the team hopes to establish a Together Moon Foundation, appoint an international and space expert defense team, and “develop the biz model for Moon possession.”

Moon footprint photo via Shutterstock