Blue Origin Officially Accepts Cryptocurrency Payments, Marking a Significant Step in the Convergence of Digital Finance and Aerospace Industry.
Jeff Bezos' aerospace company Blue Origin announced its decision to accept cryptocurrency payments for space travel, a symbolic move demonstrating the increasingly deep intersection of two pioneering technology fields.
Through a strategic partnership with Shift4 payment service provider, customers can now pay for New Shepard tickets using leading digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), and stablecoins USDT, USD Coin. The system allows direct payments from popular wallets like MetaMask and Coinbase, completely eliminating traditional intermediary barriers.
Alex Wilson, Shift4's cryptocurrency division director, notes that this move is more than just adding a new payment method. According to Wilson, cryptocurrency and stablecoins have the potential to become preferred options for large transactions in the future, especially suitable for high-cost industries like space travel due to their decentralized, cross-border payment features.
Blue Origin, which has successfully completed over 75 flights taking passengers beyond the Kármán line – the official space boundary, is currently leading the trend of blockchain application in the aerospace sector. The connection between Blue Origin and the cryptocurrency ecosystem was previously established through Tron founder Justin Sun, who spent $28 million to participate in a 2021 flight, with the proceeds donated to STEAM educational organizations.
Blue Origin's decision continues the blockchain-space integration wave that has been quietly developing over the years. From a cultural perspective, in 2022, the NFT character "Bobu the Bean Farmer" from the Azuki collection was sent to space in a SpaceX/NASA mission, though the industry's ambitions extend far beyond symbolic applications.
Pioneer projects are building actual blockchain infrastructure in space. In 2020, Spacechain successfully conducted the first Bitcoin multisignature transaction from the International Space Station (ISS), proving the feasibility of blockchain activities entirely off-planet. Following this success, Spacecoin XYZ plans to launch its first satellite in December 2024 to develop an orbital blockchain network, laying the foundation for a decentralized application ecosystem in space.
Parallel to space advancements, breakthrough solutions are emerging in the troposphere. World Mobile is deploying a 5G network using hydrogen drones, integrated with decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN). This system provides connectivity with only 6 milliseconds of latency and costs 18 times less than traditional satellites, demonstrating the potential of decentralized technology in solving terrestrial infrastructure challenges.
