{"id":18293,"date":"2018-10-31T23:35:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T15:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/why-in-the-universe-is-a-blockchain-company-buying-the-assets-of-a-formerly-high-flying-asteroid-miner\/"},"modified":"2018-10-31T23:35:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T15:35:00","slug":"why-in-the-universe-is-a-blockchain-company-buying-the-assets-of-a-formerly-high-flying-asteroid-miner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/why-in-the-universe-is-a-blockchain-company-buying-the-assets-of-a-formerly-high-flying-asteroid-miner\/","title":{"rendered":"Why in the universe is a blockchain company buying the assets of a formerly high-flying asteroid miner?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_458963\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-458963\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-458963\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/181031-planetary2-630x471.jpg\" alt=\"Planetary Resources' Chris Lewicki\" width=\"630\" height=\"471\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/181031-planetary2-630x471.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/181031-planetary2-768x574.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/181031-planetary2-1260x942.jpg 1260w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-458963\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Planetary Resources President and CEO Chris Lewicki talks about the company\u2019s satellite ambitions at the 2014 GeekWire Summit. (GeekWire Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After months of financial uncertainty, the Planetary Resources asteroid-mining venture says its assets have been purchased by the Brooklyn-based ConsenSys blockchain venture.<\/p>\n<p>In a news release, Planetary Resources said its CEO and president, Chris Lewicki, and general counsel Brian Israel have joined ConsenSys in connection with the acquisition. ConsenSys will operate its space initiatives out of Planetary Resources\u2019 former facility in Redmond, Wash.<\/p>\n<p>Further details about the transaction are confidential, Planetary Resources spokeswoman Stacey Tearne told GeekWire in an email.<\/p>\n<p>ConsenSys is a production studio that creates enterprises in a wide range of business areas based on the Ethereum platform for cryptocurrency and other blockchain applications. It has spawned 50 ventures, or \u201cspokes,\u201d including an online poker site, a legal services site&nbsp;and a \u201ctransmedia universe integrated with blockchain technology\u201d called Cellarius.<\/p>\n<p>The company\u2019s founder is Joe Lubin, who co-founded Ethereum. Today, Lubin paid tribute to Planetary Resources for its \u201cworld-class talent, its record of innovation, and for inspiring people across our planet in support of its bold vision for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Harness the Power of #Ethereum with ConsenSys\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5XgLbXxcJSE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cBringing deep-space capabilities into the ConsenSys ecosystem reflects our belief in the potential for Ethereum to help humanity craft new societal rule systems through automated trust and guaranteed execution,\u201d Lubin said in a statement. \u201cAnd it reflects our belief in democratizing and decentralizing space endeavors to unite our species and unlock untapped human potential. We look forward to sharing our plans and how to join us on this journey in the months ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In prepared comments, Lewicki looked back at Planetary Resources and looked ahead to ConsenSys.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOver the course of nearly a decade, Planetary Resources has simultaneously pioneered technology, business, law and policy, and brought the promise of space resources irreversibly closer to humankind\u2019s grasp,\u201d he said. \u201cI am proud of our team\u2019s extraordinary accomplishments, grateful to our visionary supporters, and delighted to join ConsenSys in building atop our work to expand humanity\u2019s economic sphere of influence into the solar system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Israel, meanwhile, hinted at ConsenSys\u2019 plans for future space ventures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEthereum smart contract functionality is a natural solution for private-ordering and commerce in space \u2014 the only domain of human activity not ordered around territorial sovereignty \u2014 in which a diverse range of actors from a growing number of countries must coordinate and transact,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>A similar strategy is being pursued by Asgardia, a venture that has sparked legal debate by styling itself as the first space-based nation. Asgardia has said it plans to set up an independent space-based data storage platform and its own blockchain-based cryptocurrency known as the Solar.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Planetary Resources: Our Vision for Humanity\u2019s Future in Space\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hqW9HtPCnR0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Planetary Resources was founded in its present form in 2012, with&nbsp;initial backing from billionaires including Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, Ross Perot Jr. and Charles Simonyi. Its original mission was to identify and mine near-Earth asteroids for valuable resources, ranging from water that could be converted into rocket fuel to platinum-group metals that could conceivably be sent back to Earth.<\/p>\n<p>Over the course of six years, the venture raised tens of millions of dollars and explored other potential revenue streams, including space telescope manufacturing, space selfies and an Earth-observation constellation called Ceres.<\/p>\n<p>The company sent two small experimental satellites into orbit, known as Arkyd-3R&nbsp;and&nbsp;Arkyd-6A, to lay the groundwork for asteroid-scouting efforts. Its plans called for starting the prospecting effort in earnest in the early 2020s, fueled by fresh funding. But an anticipated funding round failed to come together, leading to a wave of staff cutbacks.<\/p>\n<p>At one point, Planetary Resources planned to auction off the equipment at its Redmond headquarters (but not including a spare satellite it was holding in storage). That sale was put on hold in August and has now been called off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Planetary Resources President and CEO Chris Lewicki talks about the company\u2019s satellite ambitions at the 2014 GeekWire Summit. (GeekWire Photo) After months of financial uncertainty, the Planetary Resources asteroid-mining venture says its assets have been purchased by the Brooklyn-based ConsenSys blockchain venture. In a news release, Planetary Resources said its CEO and president, Chris Lewicki, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4365,4927,1519,4940,4817,4818,4820],"class_list":["post-18293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-asteroid","tag-asteroid-mining","tag-asteroids","tag-blockchain","tag-chris-lewicki","tag-consensys","tag-planetary-resources"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18293"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}