How to Bank in Space

Does anyone want a Galactic Coin?

Blake Delle Fave found me on Instagram. I was intrigued by his story of being the restless kid in college economics class, who founded the fintech startup Venture Tech Interactive. In less than a year he gained high ticket influencers in Silicon Valley who hire him for Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) projects involving drones.

Taken from Delle Fave's blog.

I must admit, our starting engagement wasn’t fun. His brain is like a V16 engine of a car, and his stoic appearance can be uninviting. Yet we met in order to trade our value in a timely, efficient manner. I needed tech support and rebranding while he desired a business and personal coach. We began on the topic of barter and cryptocurrencies before arriving to the conclusion that social ripples around the world should be collaborative in nature and require a level of communication which invites others to participate rather than scare them off. I call it, ‘the humanization of tech.’

The market for cryptocurrency is busy.

Delle Fave with his mom in Texas.

“There are around 800 cryptocurrencies,” said Delle Fave, who will have his coin on the market in September. He is administering an access code when individuals donate $75 to his KickStarter campaign to raise $750,000 for placing 12 satellites on the Falcon 9 from SpaceX. The benefit is a personal signature from Elon Musk whom Delle Fave will meet at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, in Florida on Dec. 7th. For now, Delle Fave’s coin is backed by Bitcoin. Yet in the future it will be backed by resources mined from space.

The future of space banking.

Photo credit: The Economist

Elon Musk first spoke about going to Mars almost two years ago. He not only talked about transport and living organisms on Mars but also creating new economies in space. It is no surprise that Musk and Delle Fave would find common ground over cryptocurrencies, especially space banking. “Elon is very private and he typically does not invest in young startups,” says Delle Fave, who has already been in discussion with Musk over his Galactic Bank idea. “Currently there is no space bank, a virtual bank that stores all the cryptocurrencies. Once we get one, the servers can be over New Zealand and Switzerland.” Delle Fave has a patent pending on the servers that are set for the Falcon 9 December launch. He enjoys discussion on the dark pool of cryptocurrency, or trading liquidity on an exchange without disrupting the ledger.

The main challenge of creating a space bank lies in regulation although no government regulates activities in orbit. “Activity in orbit, especially the resources available in space, are ten times more valuable than on earth,” says Della Fave, who anticipates the creation of a space bank backed by Musk. “This may be wishful thinking but I won’t let certain realities get in the way of accomplishing my goals,” admits Delle Fave.

Primecoin, the next generation.

Delle Fave’s excitement spills into Primecoin, invented by pseudonym Sunny King (read an interview with software developer/group of developers here). Primecoin is a form of digital currency secured by cryptography and issued through a decentralized mining market. It is a form of proof-of-work based on prime numbers that, unlike Bitcoin, has no source code or controlled currency-supply algorithm and is more volatile on the market.

Delle Fave, who enjoys being the solution to a 22nd Century problem, has submitted his application for Y Combinator, the seed accelerator group based in San Francisco to further develop his Galactic Bank.

Note: Reprinted from my recent Medium post where you can read more.