Bitcoin, broadcast from space.

Blockstream Satellite broadcasts the Bitcoin blockchain from orbit, covering most of the Earth so anyone can receive Bitcoin without an internet connection.

Get started How it works

A network of satellites carries the Bitcoin blockchain to most of the planet. With a small dish and a receiver, a node stays in sync from anywhere, even where the internet does not reach.

Receive

Receive Bitcoin anywhere.

Point a small satellite dish at the sky and connect it to a receiver. The receiver pulls blocks straight from orbit and keeps a Bitcoin node in sync, no broadband line required.

A dish and a receiver. Off-the-shelf hardware, set up once and pointed at the satellite.
One-way downlink. Blocks arrive from space; no uplink and no account are needed to receive them.
Stay in sync offline. Keep a full node current in regions with no connectivity, or as a backup feed.

Coverage across most of the planet.

The satellite signal reaches well beyond the edges of terrestrial networks, so the Bitcoin blockchain travels to places a fiber line never will.

Broadcast

Send your own messages over the network.

The Satellite API lets developers broadcast data over the same network that carries Bitcoin. Submit a message, pay with Lightning, and it goes out to receivers worldwide.

Read the API docs
01
Submit a messagePost the data you want to broadcast to the Satellite API.
02
Pay with LightningAn invoice prices the transmission; settle it over the Lightning Network.
03
Broadcast from orbitThe message is queued and transmitted across the satellite footprint.
04
Received worldwideAnyone with a dish and a receiver in coverage can pick it up, offline.
Resilience

A second path to Bitcoin that does not depend on the internet.

Redundant by design

Run the satellite feed alongside a normal connection. If the link drops, blocks keep arriving from space.

Hard to censor

A one-way broadcast across whole regions is difficult to block at the level of a single network or provider.

Reaches the unconnected

Communities and operators beyond reliable broadband can still keep a node in sync with the network.

Open tooling

The receiver software and the Satellite API are open source, documented, and free to build on.

What it takes.

Coverage
Most of the Earth, from a network of satellites
To receive
A small satellite dish and a receiver
Connection
None required to receive; one-way downlink from orbit
Keeps in sync
A full Bitcoin node, offline or as a backup feed
Broadcast
The Satellite API, paid with Lightning
Software
Open-source receiver tooling and API
Blockstream mark

Run a node from anywhere.

Set up a receiver, broadcast over the network, or build with the Satellite API. Everything is open and documented.

Get started For developers
View on GitHub Blockstream Research