Bybit
Starcloud Plans Bitcoin Mining From Space
Starcloud has revealed plans to begin Bitcoin mining in space. The initiative is expected to start after the company launches its second spacecraft later this year. If successful, Starcloud could become the first company to mine Bitcoin beyond Earth.
CEO Philip Johnston explained that orbital computing infrastructure opens new possibilities for digital workloads. In particular, specialized ASIC miners could operate efficiently in space environments. The company argues that the economics of space computing favor ASIC hardware over GPU accelerators.
Johnston noted that GPUs are significantly more expensive relative to power consumption. A single kilowatt GPU system may cost about $30,000. By comparison, an ASIC miner with similar power requirements may cost roughly $1,000. Because of this difference, the company believes Bitcoin mining could become a compelling use case for orbital data centers.
Orbital Data Centers and Bitcoin Mining
Starcloud was founded in early 2024. The company aims to build space-based data centers to meet rising demand for computing power.
In November, Starcloud launched a satellite carrying an NVIDIA H100 GPU into orbit. It marked the first time such a powerful GPU operated in space. The company’s future network could include about 88,000 satellites. These orbital facilities are expected to run primarily on solar power.
According to the company, Bitcoin mining could become one of the primary workloads supported by this infrastructure. Potential advantages of space-based mining include:
- renewable solar energy usage;
- scalable computing capacity;
- reduced pressure on Earth’s power grids.
Johnston believes that, in the long term, large portions of global Bitcoin mining may move beyond Earth.
Interplanetary Bitcoin Transactions
Space-related Bitcoin experiments are not limited to mining. Entrepreneurs Jose E. Puente and Carlos Puente previously proposed a concept for sending Bitcoin transactions to Mars. Their approach relies on optical communication links provided by NASA or Starlink. Transactions could travel through satellites and relay stations. In theory, Bitcoin transfers between planets could occur within minutes.
However, mining Bitcoin on Mars is considered impractical for now. The main challenge is the latency between Earth and Mars.
Meanwhile, the Bitcoin mining industry is facing economic pressure. The Bitcoin price has dropped nearly 48% from its October peak. At the same time, network mining difficulty recently declined about 7%. This temporary drop in difficulty offers miners some relief. Even so, new concepts such as orbital data centers could reshape the future of Bitcoin mining infrastructure.
