Cryptocurrency enthusiasts are embracing a new method of transferring digital assets. Rodolfo Novak, co-founder of Bitcoin hardware company CoinKite, successfully transferred Bitcoin from Toronto, Canada to Elaine Ou, Bloomberg opinion columnist and blockchain engineer at Global Financial Access located in San Francisco, California.
Ou responded to a tweet Novak sent on Friday asking if anyone wanted to attempt a transaction over radio waves using the Lightning Network, a Bitcoin scaling solution.
Who wants to attempt a #LightningNetwork over #amateurradio on JS8?
Will be 18 messages long! 40m band looks open.
cc @SamuelPatt @eiaine ??
— DETERMINISTIC OPTIMISM |NVK|??? (@nvk) March 1, 2019
Ou accepted the offer on Twitter where the invoice was uploaded.
Bitcoin is making ham radio cool again! https://t.co/DBqCixd3dw
— Eiaine@bitcoinhackers.org ??? (@eiaine) March 1, 2019
According to Novak,
“In case you are wondering, this is the actual Lightning Network, radio waves travel at the speed of light in air 300,000 km/s, via copper would be 5% slower.”
Despite the success of the transaction, hardware is required to power BTC transactions via radio waves. High-power transmitters can cost thousands of dollars versus low-power transmitters that cost a few hundred dollars.
Nevertheless, the tech suggests that by combining radio waves with the Lightning Network, which enables faster crypto transactions, Bitcoin can transcend not only borders to move value around the world, but also firewalls that governments use to block websites, online portals and user accounts on the internet.
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Blockchain engineers are also developing infrastructure that allows Bitcoin to be moved via satellite.
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