How Bitcoin Mining Could Solve One Of The Issues With Space-Based Solar Power

In the incredibly competitive world of bitcoin mining, one of the keys to the game is finding the cheapest possible source of energy. In the not so distant future, that source of energy may be found in space.

As a quick review, the bitcoin mining process is what keeps everyone in the world on the same Bitcoin ledger; it effectively prevents people from spending the same bitcoin twice. Bitcoin miners are rewarded for their work through the creation of new bitcoin and transaction fees (known as the block reward).

At a recent Bitcoin security conference in Paris (called Breaking Bitcoin), cryptography consultant and former Bitcoin Core contributor Peter Todd explored the idea of mining bitcoin in space.

It should be noted that this is more of a thought exercise at this point than something that is going to happen at any point in the near future. As Todd has explained on his blog, “Sorry guys, but the phrase ‘not as crazy as it sounds’ just means we’re in the realm of hard sci-fi rather than pure fantasy: if space-based solar power ever becomes practical, then it’d made sense to put Bitcoin miners in space. But we still need to make space solar practical, and that’s a lot way off.”

Generating Power in Space

Putting solar panels in space is an idea that has been explored for many years, and the reasoning behind it is quite simple.

“You put a bunch of solar panels up there, and it’s nice and shiny,” explained Todd during his presentation. “There’s none of those annoying clouds to get in the way. And you beam your power back to earth.”

There have also been proposals for the generation of nuclear power in space, but no matter what kind of power generation you’re talking about, one key issue remains: How do you get the power back to earth in an efficient manner?

In a 2010 article in the New Scientist, one proposal for beaming power from space back to earth was described by the president of a consultancy firm that specializes in space solar power as providing less energy than moonlight.

Getting That Power Back to Earth

Pointing to a tweet by Max Keiser of The Keiser Report as a reference, Todd noted that bitcoin may be a solution to the problem of what to do with power once it has been generated in space.

“The easiest way to get the power back is, really, to get the money that the power represents in terms of bitcoin,” said Todd.

The longtime Bitcoin researcher went on to note that this sort of phenomenon already exists on earth. In both China and Russia, there have been examples of using bitcoin to convert “stranded power” into cash.

“You have some power getting generated in a place, but you don’t actually have the infrastructure to get it off to the grid where it would actually be used,” noted Todd. “If you did, somehow, solve the challenge of solar power in space, adding the bitcoin miners too is actually pretty easy in comparison.”

While putting bitcoin miners in space potentially solves the incentives around getting solar panels out there in the first place, it should be noted that those solar panels will not lead to any of that power being used back at home on earth.

Getting a Mined Bitcoin Block Back to Earth

One last thing to think about in terms of mining bitcoin in space is that any block a miner finds need to get back to earth in a timely manner. In this regard, Todd estimated that it would take roughly 0.3 seconds for a newly found block to get from a miner in geostationary orbit back down to the rest of the network on the ground.

Todd explained why getting the block data from space back down to earth would not take as long as some may think.

“First of all, in space you can go in a straight line,” explained Todd. “Whereas, if you actually look at fiber maps of where they actually put the cables in the ocean, they go and squiggle all over the place because they have to avoid obstacles like undersea mountains. The other thing is, the speed of light in fiber is actually slower than a vacuum . . . So, it’s a bit slower, but it’s not as slow as you’d think.”

According to a simple estimate provided by Todd during his talk, miners in a geostationary orbit around earth would be 99.4% as profitable as well-connected miners on earth due to the extra bit of time it takes for the space miner to get their data back to earth.

Of course, this assumes the majority of miners are found on earth. If the majority of miners are in space, then the miners on earth are the ones at a disadvantage.