Space-Based Bitcoin Mining Set to Launch by Nvidia-Backed Orbital Computing Firm
According to Starcloud's CEO Philip Johnston, utilizing ASICs for Bitcoin mining in orbital operations costs 30 times less per kilowatt-hour compared to GPU-based mining in space.
An orbital data center venture backed by Nvidia called Starcloud has announced plans to commence Bitcoin mining operations from orbit in the latter part of this year, coinciding with the deployment of its second spacecraft, which would make it the pioneering company to mine Bitcoin beyond Earth's atmosphere.
The startup's chief executive officer, Philip Johnston, declared on X this past Saturday that Starcloud "will be the first to mine Bitcoin in space," following his disclosure of the company's extraterrestrial Bitcoin mining plans during a Thursday conversation with HyperChange.
During his discussion with the media outlet, Johnston explained that operating Bitcoin application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) mining equipment would represent "one of the most compelling use cases" for space-based computing infrastructure, primarily because of its substantially lower cost compared to graphics processing units.
"GPUs are about 30 times more expensive per kilowatt or per watt than ASICs," Johnston said. "A 1-kilowatt B200 chip, it might cost $30,000. A 1-kilowatt ASIC is like $1,000."
Through his X platform announcement, Johnston predicted that space-based Bitcoin mining operations will evolve into a "massive industry" because of the considerable economic advantages it offers over terrestrial cryptocurrency mining operations.
"Bitcoin mining consumes about 20 GW of power continuously. It makes no sense to do this on Earth, and in the end state, all of this will be done in space."
The company known as Starcloud came into existence in the opening months of 2024 with the mission of constructing orbital data centers as a remedy for the increasing energy demands associated with artificial intelligence applications. The company achieved a significant milestone in November when it successfully deployed a satellite equipped with an NVIDIA H100 processor into orbital space, representing the inaugural instance of such a powerful GPU functioning in the space environment.
The company's orbital data center infrastructure, consisting of approximately 88,000 satellites, derives its power predominantly from solar energy sources.
Sending Bitcoin to Mars
As Johnston's Starcloud company pursues its vision of extracting Bitcoin in space, technology innovators Jose E. Puente and Carlos Puente developed a methodology during the previous year for transmitting the cryptocurrency between different planets.
During a September interview, Puente informed Cointelegraph that transferring Bitcoin to Mars in a timeframe as brief as three minutes is achievable in theory through the utilization of an optical communication link provided by either NASA or Starlink, combined with an innovative interplanetary timestamping mechanism.
Although a recipient would need to be present on Mars to receive the transmission, the Bitcoin transaction would traverse through various space infrastructure components — including antennas and satellites — potentially even utilizing a relay positioned around the Moon prior to arriving at Mars.
The Puentes, nevertheless, indicated that establishing Bitcoin mining operations on Mars would prove impractical given the significant communication latency that exists between Earth and the red planet.
The profit margins for Bitcoin mining operations have experienced compression throughout recent months, especially as a consequence of Bitcoin's (BTC) value decreasing by nearly 48% from its peak of $126,080 reached on Oct. 6.
Despite this challenge, the Bitcoin mining difficulty metric has declined 7% from its all-time high of 155.9 trillion units recorded in November down to 145 trillion, providing cryptocurrency miners with some temporary relief for the time being.