JP Morgan Blockchain Onyx business uses Satellites for blockchain payments

JPMorgan Chase & Cohas has tested blockchain payments using satellites orbiting the earth. JP Morgan executives speakig to Reuters stated that this shows that digital devices could use the technology behind virtual currencies for transactions. The so-called Internet of Things (IoT), where devices connect to one another, is most associated with consumer electronics, including smart speakers like Amazon Echo and Google Home, and banks want to be ready to process payments when these smart devices start doing transactions autonomously.

Umar Farooq, the CEO of JPMorgan's blockchain business Onyx, thought space was a cool place to try it out. "The idea was to explore IoT payments in a fully decentralised way," Farooq said. "Nowhere is more decentralised and detached from earth than space." "Secondly we are nerdy and it was a much more fun way to test IoT," he said.

To run the space experiment, the bank's blockchain team did not send its own satellites into space, but worked with Danish company GOMspace, which allows third parties to run software on its satellites.Farooq said the satellite test showed blockchain networks could power transactions between every day objects.The test also showed it could be possible to create a marketplace where satellites send each other data in exchange for payments, as more private companies launch their own devices into space, Tyrone Lobban, head of blockchain launch, at Onyx said.