JPMorgan has carried out a test to make blockchain-based payments between satellites in space, as part of projects being developed by its dedicated unit Onyx.
The bank is preparing for when Internet of Things devices, such as smart speakers which connect to other devices on the same network, will be ready to make such payments autonomously — such as a car buying more petrol, or a fridge ordering itself eggs.
Tyrone Lobban, head of JPMorgan’s blockchain launch team, said the team had “decided there was enough here to begin thinking about what a space payments system would look like over the long term. But first we needed to prove it was even possible by testing some foundational components”.
The bank had to use satellites operated by GOMspace for the trial, which allows other companies to run third-party software on their network.
As more private companies consider launching their own constellations of satellites, the ability to send payments over blockchain could soon create a marketplace for peer-to-peer data and payment exchange.
“The idea was to explore IoT payments in a fully decentralised way,” Farooq told Reuters in a 24 February interview. “Nowhere is more decentralised and detached from Earth than space.”
The satellite test demonstrated that transactions between connected objects can be successfully carried out using blockchain protocols, which JPMorgan said was a world first.
The bank launched Onyx in October, after working on its construction for five years. It has more than 100 employees working on its projects, which include the bank’s own JPM Coin and blockchain-based network Liink.
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“Onyx illustrates our commitment to blockchain and other ground breaking technologies to strengthen and expand JPMorgan’s Wholesale Payments platform,” the bank’s global head of wholesale payments Takis Georgakopolous said at the time.
“We are at the forefront of reimagining and re-architecting better ways to exchange information and value.”
Projects undertaken by the business so far have included Dromaius, which simulated the issuance and transfer of debt securities to show the potential for distributed ledger technology, of which blockchain is just one type.
Meanwhile in a project named Ubin, Onyx has been working with the Monetary Authority of Singapore to develop a prototype enabling payments to be made in different currencies on a single blockchain network.
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