Ever want to pay magic internet money to send HELLO WORLD to the entire world by bouncing it off a satellite? It's 2019 and this is a thing you can do. Bid testnet bitcoin using Lightning payments in order to send messages through a fleet of five Blockstream satellites that broadcast over pretty much the entire planet; anyone listening in with a satellite dish will get your message.

Sending a message with this service couldn't be easier, but verifying your message was sent requires tools that aren't as user-friendly.

Receive Messages

Once you've installed the Blockstream satellite Python utilities, run the following to receive messages sent over the satellite by connecting directly to a server, no satellite dish needed:

blockstream-satellite/api/examples$ ./demo-rx.py

Then run the following to grab and save these messages:

blockstream-satellite/api/examples$ ./api_data_reader.py --plaintext
Waiting for data...
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[2019-02-04 23:22:42]: Got    2135 bytes        Saving as plaintext
Saved in downloads/20190204232242.
[2019-02-05 02:57:25]: Got    1024 bytes        Saving as plaintext
Saved in downloads/20190205025725.

Open the saved plaintext files to read the messages!

Set up a Satellite Dish

Yes, this is a thing that you can do! Requires ~$200 worth of equipment and quite a bit of technical expertise.

Things People Have Sent

Somebody has been using the satellite to blog:

Pavol Rusnak, CTO of SatoshiLabs (creatos of the Trezor hardware wallet), even used the Blockstream satellites to relay the Lightning Torch:

News

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