The European Space Agency (ESA), one of the main intergovernmental space exploration organisations, is funding a new blockchain project aimed at boosting the global extractive industry.
As a well-known participant in blockchain technology applications, ESA is currently co-funding a joint project with the Scottish company Hypervine to improve data transparency for the extractive industry by combining satellite and blockchain data.
The project has an ambitious mission to prevent miscalculation and potentially catastrophic or fatal accidents in the mining industry by providing a single and consistent mining database. The project relies on Hypervine technology, which enables mining teams and their subsidiaries to clearly record data in an unchanged book, eliminating the risk of the slightest change in the data along the chain.
In particular, the initiative aims to record information from satellites in a distributed book to provide mining companies with a reliable and coordinated source of data, replacing paper sources that need to be checked by multiple teams at different locations. As mining companies can spend months getting the right data from often fragmented sources, the design of blockchain-powered satellite databases also aims to reduce costs for the mining industry.
Finally, in addition to increasing accuracy and reducing human error and potential risks, the ESA-supported project will also have a positive impact on environmental conditions by reducing carbon emissions through operational efficiency.
In addition to space research, ESA is actively researching the blockchain industry. In September 2019, the agency awarded SpaceChain for the launch of blockchain about $66,000 for the commercial development of a multi-satellite portfolio. Earlier, ESA published a White Paper on a potential future implementation plan for blockchain in Earth observation.
