Crypto company shoots 62 bitcoins on the moon – and you can get them
When a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket takes the Mapp (Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform) rover to the moon in the fall of 2023, it will have a bulging treasure chest on board. The loot is 62 bitcoins attached to the rover in the form of a private key. Currently (end of March 2023) the treasure is worth almost 1.7 million US dollars.
The “Nakamoto_1“ The baptized and probably actually first interplanetary treasure hunt was launched by the crypto company Lunarcrush. However, the company is currently still in the process of collecting the necessary small change to be able to buy the bitcoins.
Editor’s Recommendations
This is done by selling non-fungible tokens (NFT). A total of 24,000 pieces landed on the virtual sales table today, March 28, 2023 – each token cost 250 dollars.
If all of the NFT were sold, as the website says it looks like, Lunarcrush would make $6 million. Only around a quarter of this should flow into the actual treasure hunt.
Another quarter is to be invested in the further development of Bitcoin and educational projects. According to Lunarcrush, the remaining three million dollars will go to partner companies that helped build the project.
Doesn’t sound all that trustworthy, does it? The whole thing is more of a marketing gimmick. Like Gizmodo correctly objectsnobody knows how much Bitcoins are worth in autumn.
Let alone at the point in time when the private key and thus the cryptocurrency units would be recovered. It is also unclear whether there are still bitcoins in the associated wallet at all.
For Lunarcrush CEO Joe Vezzani, the point of the treasure hunt is to set a seemingly “unattainable goal” that will spur innovation in space.
The idea: Corporations, DAOs or other groups of people should work together on a way to get to the moon. Vezzani thinks that it doesn’t necessarily have to take much longer.
What astronauts take with them into space
Lunarcrush is not the first crypto company to play with the scene term “To the Moon” (for rapidly rising crypto prices). Bitmex launched a similar campaign in 2021. At that time, however, it was only about one Bitcoin.
It is unclear whether this is somehow on board the designated Peregrine lander, which – after some delays – is scheduled to land on the moon later this year. None of the project managers responded to the Gizmodo request.
The Rover Mapp used for the Lunarcrush treasure hunt and developed by space startup Lunar Outpost is actually used to build and test a 4G/LTE communications network from Nokia. After the end of the mission, the rover remains on the moon.
Until treasure hunters want to find the treasure hidden in the rover. However, a necessary moon mission for private individuals should only be worthwhile if significantly cheaper transfers are possible. Or when the Bitcoin price rises significantly again. When everything goes right.
