Space tourism meets crypto as Blue Origin accepts Bitcoin, Ether, USDt

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Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin has partnered with Shift4 Payments to fto customers wage for trips to outer abstraction successful cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.

According to a Monday press release, Blue Origin’s New Shepard tickets tin beryllium purchased successful Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), USDt (USDT), and USD Coin (USDC).

Blue Origin — which has flown much than 75 passengers past the Kármán Line, the internationally recognized bound wherever Earth’s ambiance ends and abstraction begins — volition judge nonstop payments from fashionable wallets similar MetaMask and Coinbase.

Shift4 CEO Taylor Lauber said the institution was “thrilled” to widen its imaginativeness of revolutionizing commerce beyond Earth.”

Alex Wilson, caput of crypto astatine Shift4, said crypto and stablecoins volition apt go an progressively fashionable mode to wage for high-end purchases.

From NFT collectibles to blockchain infrastructure successful space

Blockchain has already made its mode beyond Earth’s ambiance successful some taste and method forms.

In 2022, Azuki made headlines successful the nonfungible token community erstwhile its “Bobu the Bean Farmer” quality was sent to abstraction arsenic portion of a SpaceX/NASA mission, merging integer collectibles with real-world frontier exploration.

Beyond NFTs, immoderate projects are gathering blockchain infrastructure successful orbit. In 2020, the Spacechain completed what it described arsenic the archetypal multisignature Bitcoin transaction from the International Space Station, demonstrating however blockchain operations tin beryllium conducted wholly off-planet.

In December 2024, Spacecoin XYZ launched its archetypal satellite to statesman processing an orbital blockchain web aimed astatine extending decentralized applications beyond Earth’s surface. The task plans to physique a tiered blockchain strategy anchored successful abstraction to enactment aboriginal decentralized economies.

Stratospheric blockchain connectivity

Blockchain-powered aerospace projects aren’t constricted to space. Telecom startup World Mobile is launching a 5G web utilizing hydrogen-powered drones flying astatine 60,000 feet to beam wireless connectivity implicit 15,000 quadrate kilometers.

The system, developed with Indonesian telecom institution Protelindo, integrates with World Mobile’s decentralized carnal infrastructure web (DePIN), which combines accepted telecom assets with independently operated nodes to widen work to underserved communities.

According to the company, the attack promises latency arsenic debased arsenic six milliseconds — importantly outperforming satellites — and costs up to 18 times little per gigabyte.

Tron founder’s $28M travel to space

Blue Origin’s nexus to the crypto satellite besides isn’t new. On Aug. 3, Blue Origin carried Justin Sun, laminitis of the blockchain level Tron, connected its NS-34 ngo from West Texas.

Sun paid $28 cardinal for the spot successful a 2021 auction and joined 5 different passengers connected the suborbital flight, marking 1 of the astir high-profile intersections of blockchain and abstraction tourism.

According to Blue Origin, the summons terms was donated to 19 space-focused charities to animate children to prosecute careers successful science, technology, engineering, creation and mathematics (STEAM).

Upon return, Sun said, “Earth is truthful small, and it's our home. We decidedly request to bash immoderate we tin to support it.”

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