WISeKey Integrates Satellite Blockchain

July 4, 2024 – A leading global cybersecurity company, WISeKey, announced on Tuesday its project to integrate blockchain technology into space, aiming to revolutionize the satellite industry by improving logistics, insurance, regulatory compliance, and data security.

Blockchain provides distributed recording of transactions across multiple computers through an advanced database mechanism that stores data in blocks linked together in a chain, ensuring the security, transparency, and permanence of the data and during the process. 

By utilizing blockchain technology, digital databases can track and share data across networks more efficiently and accurately. 

WISeKey plans to test blockchain technology with its new WISeSat satellite, set to be launched with SpaceX from Vandenberg Space Force Base in October. 

By leveraging blockchain in space, WISeSat aims to enhance the reliability and accessibility of satellite operations, it claimed. This includes automating processes for launching and operating satellites, reducing the need for intermediaries, and minimizing human errors, resulting in more efficient and cost-effective operations.

Blockchain nodes, which run the protocol software of a decentralized network, will be added to the blockchain. This integration is expected to improve cybersecurity, create a more distributed and resilient network, reduce the risk of failures, and lower energy costs, as traditional data centers consume significant electricity for computing and cooling.

According to WISeKey, blockchain's transparency and traceability can benefit government functions related to satellites by reducing human errors and providing tamper-proof records for oversight.

Experts suggest that blockchain technology can accelerate economic activity. Jerry Cuomo, IBM’s vice president of blockchain technologies at a Tech Forward, explained that each blockchain has multiple administrators who must vet each transaction before it is recorded in the digital “ledger.” Once recorded, transactions are nearly impossible to change or delete. Each data point, or “block,” in the blockchain is heavily encrypted, ensuring high levels of security and user trust.

While blockchain is most commonly associated with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Cuomo said it has a wide range of applications, including identity verification, food safety, and intra-supply chain communication. For example, instead of creating hundreds of accounts on various websites, a user might soon have a single blockchain-based identity accessible whenever verification is needed.

As for the timetable on blockchain technologies becoming commonplace in the economy, Cuomo said that he believes “it is within the decade.”

In January 2023, a panelist of experts further said blockchain technologies can ensure that consumers maintain control over their own data. “Giving [users] that choice…to pick a place that is built and verifiable to be secure, to be private, to be a place that fits with their values, that can really enhance things for the users,” said Kurt Opsahl, general counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.