Rendition of a Blockstream satellite. Photo: Blockstream.

Blockstream has announced the availability of Blockstream Satellite, a new service that broadcasts real-time Bitcoin blockchain data from a group of communication satellites in space. According to the company, Blockstream Satellite enables further participation in Bitcoin, including the billions of people in the world without internet access and people in places where bandwidth prices make participating cost prohibitive. The service is now available across two-thirds of the Earth’s landmass, and additional coverage areas will soon come online to reach almost every person on the planet by the end of the year, Blockstream stated.

Blockstream Satellite allows anyone to operate and maintain Bitcoin nodes without the constraints of traditional network connectivity. The service sends blocks in real-time, as well as recirculates older blocks, providing free access to the Bitcoin blockchain for both long-time and new users of the cryptocurrency. In addition, Blockstream Satellite provides an additional layer of reliability for blockchain data in the event of a network partition.

The network currently consists of three Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites that cover four continents — Africa, Europe, South America, and North America. By the end of 2017, Blockstream will add additional satellites to the network. Ground stations uplink the public Bitcoin blockchain data to the satellites in the network, which then broadcast the data to areas across the globe. The company stated it is building out additional teleports in phases to enable worldwide coverage.

Blockstream Satellite makes extensive use of open source software, including GNU Radio, an open source software development toolkit that enables the cross-platform implementation of Software-Defined Radios (SDR). Blockstream Satellite also uses the Fast Internet Bitcoin Relay Engine (FIBRE), an open source protocol. According to Blockstream, these open source technologies together allow it to provide this service for free.