💸 Bitcoin will now be mined right in space

Startup Starcloud, supported by Nvidia, will install ASIC miners on the Starcloud-2 satellite, which they plan to launch before the end of the year. Once in orbit, the equipment will begin extracting BTC using almost continuously available solar energy.

• Starcloud was originally created for a different purpose: to move data centers to space, where there is constant solar power and no construction limitations like those on Earth

• Mining was added for financial reasons: ASIC chips are about 30 times cheaper than GPUs per kilowatt of power. An example from Johnston: an Nvidia B200 chip at 1 kW costs $30,000, while an ASIC of the same power costs just $1,000

• Starcloud-2 will be the second of four planned company satellites and the first commercial mission

So “to the moon” is getting closer and closer—literally)