You’ve been told the internet is a global village. It’s not. It’s a patchwork of walled gardens, stitched together by submarine cables, licenses, and controlled by the government. This is why you are being overcharged for shitty Wi-Fi on a beach. This is why over 2.6 billion people can’t get online because connecting them to the internet is not profitable for the Internet Service Providers. This is why a video of a peaceful protest is "Not available in your region". Your freedom, your business, your relationships, are all being taxed, filtered and throttled on the internet. And can be switched off because your president got fact-checked. This centralized design is deficient, but the problem isn't new, nor is the solution. centralized design is deficient We are now upgrading to the internet’s decentralized successor, an orbital network that finally fulfills its original promise. Spacecoin is building the decentralized successor to the centralized internet: a trustless, global connectivity network using a constellation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) small satellites and powered by blockchain technology. Like Satoshi invented Bitcoin for trustless money, Spacecoin is eliminating counterparty risk in global communications, ensuring secure, universal access to information that is inherently resilient against censorship and single points of failure. trustless, global connectivity network The Internet Was Never Meant To Be Centralized The original design of the internet was aimed at freedom. ARPANET was a peer-to-peer military network that was built to survive nuclear war, route around damage and function without central command. When ARPANET launched, decentralization was military necessity. If Moscow nuked Washington, the network had to keep functioning. But its spirit was betrayed by its body: the physical infrastructure of cables and wires made centralization inevitable. The moment the internet went commercial, incentives flipped. Wires crossed borders. Cables need burial rights. Spectrum requires licenses. Every physical dependency became a political one. ISPs could make more money controlling access than enabling it. Telecoms lobbied for exclusive licenses. Governments saw another utility to tax and regulate. Terrestrial infrastructure rewards centralization. The more chokepoints you control, the more rent you extract. The more rent you extract, the more you lobby for regulations protecting your monopoly. ISPs don't compete. They inherit customers by geography. You don't choose Comcast or MTN. They choose you. This is why your internet access is taxed, filtered and can be switched off. Over 2.6 billion people remain unconnected because terrestrial economics make it unprofitable to reach them. The only way to escape this terrestrial trap is to leave the ground. Escape Velocity: The Hardware Solution Most people think decentralization is only a software problem. Better protocols. Blockchain. End-to-end encryption. But software runs on hardware. If the hardware layer is centralized, then the network is centralized. For decades, this was an unsolvable problem. Then, the cost of leaving earth fell by 90%. Reusable rockets have made orbit accessible. Now is the era of internet infrastructure that's above jurisdiction. The medium of transmission for internet access is switching from wires to orbits. The wired internet is like a river. It flows through regulated channels, and every town along its banks can build a dam, levy a tax, or poison its waters. This creates a thousand points where governments can intervene. The wireless (satellite) internet is like the rain. It falls everywhere at once. No single entity can own it or stop it from reaching the ground. The Future of The Internet Resembles The Stars Aside from faster speeds, better coverage, an important implication of this future of internet is power, who controls access to information, capital and coordination. Here's what will break: Censorship Becomes Unenforceable: Censorship Becomes Unenforceable: Censorship Becomes Unenforceable: Governments censor by targeting chokepoints (ISPs, DNS servers, submarine cable). The same way they control a highway or border; by setting up checkpoints to block what they don't like. But you can't setup a checkpoint on the sky. During the 2019 Iran protests, the government shut down internet access for 12 million people. Coordination collapsed for five days. Satellites turn the river into rain. Caveats matter: Governments can still ban satellite receivers (like China bans VPNs). But enforcement becomes impossible when the receivers are cheap, DIY, and deniable. A Raspberry Pi-sized device, 3D-printable antenna. The marginal cost of suppression rises faster than the marginal cost of access. Systems become antifragile when attempts to suppress them accelerate adoption. Ban the receivers? Black markets emerge. Jam the signal? Users switch frequencies. The harder authoritarian states crack down, the more citizens defect digitally. Network Effects Escape National Borders: Network Effects Escape National Borders: Network Effects Escape National Borders: Facebook dominates globally because it locked in users country by country. ISPs monopolize because they own local cables. Building a global platform like facebook means negotiating with telecoms in 50+ countries. Navigating regulations. Paying rent at every layer. Spacecoin collapses this entirely. A startup in Lagos can now serve customers in rural India, Brazil, and Indonesia without partnering with local telecoms. No more middlemen. This creates a free trade, borderless access to any market. The economic reality: ISPs extract $1.5 trillion annually in access fees globally (they're charging for scarcity). The solution is abundant bandwidth coordinated by free markets. Sovereignty Becomes Portable: Sovereignty Becomes Portable: Sovereignty Becomes Portable: Where you physically live determines your digital sovereignty. EU? GDPR. China? Great Firewall. US? NSA Surveillance. If your internet comes from orbit, you can route through any jurisdiction you want—or bypass them all. Right now, if regulators don't like your project, they pressure AWS or Cloudflare. Regulators seize servers. Services go dark. What this means for you: If you're building anything governments might restrict (crypto, journalism, coordination tools), design for orbital infrastructure from the start. Freedom is still not free. But it's cheaper Freedom is still not free. But it's cheaper Freedom is still not free. But it's cheaper Right now, if you hate your government's policies, you have two options: Use your voice: Vote. Protest. Lobby. Exit: Move countries, uproot your life, navigate immigration, sell property. Spacetech collapses the cost of digital exit to near-zero. You don't need to physically leave. States survive their bad policies because their bad policies make the cost of leaving the country expensive for citizens. But when you can work, transact, communicate outside government control, the power dynamic inverts. Government can't extract rent from what they can't see. Example: A developer in Argentina. Inflation 100%+. Capital control restricts dollar earnings But with Spacecoin + crypto rails, he: i. Earns globally ii. Gets paid in Stablecoins iii. Stores wealth offshore iv. Coordinates worldwide, all while living in Buenos Aires. What this means for you: If you're geographically trapped but want optionality, invest in tools enabling digital exit (satellite internet, crypto wallets, pseudonymous identity). If you're building for emerging markets, design for users that are decentralized. Wealth Flows to Coordinators, and Stops Flowing to Gatekeepers Wealth Flows to Coordinators, and Stops Flowing to Gatekeepers Wealth Flows to Coordinators, and Stops Flowing to Gatekeepers ISPs profit from scarcity. Throttle bandwidth. Charge tiers. Extract rent. Once satellites are in orbit, bandwidth becomes abundant. The bottleneck isn't supply, it's coordination. Wealth stops flowing to gatekeepers and flows to whoever coordinates. ISPs are oil monopolies (control wells, control price). The orbital layer is solar, once deployed, energy becomes abundant. Value shifts from extraction to coordination. Spacecoin's model: Users collectively fund satellite launches via token purchases. Satellites relay data. Users pay micropayments for bandwidth. Token holders earn yield. Governance happens on-chain via DAO. Technical caveats: Satellites still need ground stations initially (to interface with terrestrial internet). But as inter-satellite links mature (SpaceX already testing this), the network becomes fully orbital. Ground dependency shrinks to user terminals only, which can't be controlled if hardware is open source and cheap. Early participants don't just use the network, they own it. Like Uber drivers owning equity in Uber. Cryptographic consensus, not corporate fiat, governs the infrastructure." governs The Internet Becomes Anti-Fragile The Internet Becomes Anti-Fragile The Internet Becomes Anti-Fragile The current internet is fragile because it has single points of failure. Cut a submarine cable and entire regions go dark. DDoS an ISP and millions go offline. Satellite mesh networks self-heal. One Satellite fails? Traffic reroutes. One ground station shuts down? Mesh finds another path. Every attempt at censorship teaches the network to route around new obstacles. Every authoritarian crackdown accelerates adoption of decentralized receivers. During Hurricane Katrina, terrestrial networks collapsed. Similarly, in Ukraine, when Russia targeted infrastructure, Starlink kept coordination alive. Orbital networks stay online when ground systems fail. What this means for you: If you care about resilience. Business continuity. Freedom. Coordination under duress. Bet on antifragile infrastructure. We're in a phase transition in how power, wealth and sovreignty distribute. When infrastructure for the internet leaves the ground, the old gatekeepers (ISPs, Governments, Telecoms) will lose leverage. You will gain optionality, sovereignty, antifragility. The question isn't "Will this happen?". SpaceX has 6,000+ satellites in orbit. Amazon is Building project Kuiper. Spacecoin is bootstrapping decentralized ownership. The question is; are you positioning yourself for a world where geography no longer determines access? The map is about to stop mattering. If you're building: Design for orbit. Make your stack censorship-resistant by default. Don't rely on platforms governments can pressure. If you're building: If you're investing: Own pieces of the coordination layer. ISPs are legacy rent-seekers. Decentralized satellite networks are the new infrastructure frontier. If you're investing: If you're human: Demand sovereignty. Don't accept that your access depends on government permission or corporate benevolence. The tools exist. Use them. If you're human: The internet was designed to leave Earth. We just didn't have the tools until now. Spacecoin is launching the Orbital Layer. Be early. Own the infrastructure. Escape the map. Spacecoin is launching the Orbital Layer. Be early. Own the infrastructure. Escape the map. Learn more: spacecoin.com spacecoin.com

Bitcoin

UNUS SED LEO

Facebook

Starlink

Make

Cloudflare

You're Not an Introvert: How to Build High-Value Connections Online

Hard Work Is Dead: Why Leverage (Not Hustle) Rules the Creator Economy

Subscribe to My Newsletter

Read My Book

Too Long; Didn't Read

The Galactic Wide Web: The End of Terrestrial Networks

The Galactic Wide Web: The End of Terrestrial Networks

About Author

Comments

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN

Related Stories

AI Army: How to Outsource Your Business to a Fleet of Digital Robots

Zero-Knowledge Proofs: Questionnaire Result Verification in Smart Contracts

06/03/2018: Biggest Stories in the Cryptosphere

10 Ways Bluzelle is building the Decentralized Internet

10 Essential Essays on Bitcoin

10 DeFi Projects to Keep Your Eye On in 2021

AI Army: How to Outsource Your Business to a Fleet of Digital Robots

Zero-Knowledge Proofs: Questionnaire Result Verification in Smart Contracts

06/03/2018: Biggest Stories in the Cryptosphere

10 Ways Bluzelle is building the Decentralized Internet

10 Essential Essays on Bitcoin

10 DeFi Projects to Keep Your Eye On in 2021

Light-Mode

Classic

Newspaper

Minty

Dark-Mode

Neon Noir

Minty

HN StartUps