If you had a computer that couldn't be unplugged, couldn't be seized, and even the operator couldn't spy on it, would you dare to hand over your assets and keys to it?
Author: Sanqing, Foresight News
On November 26, SpaceComputer, an innovative project focused on space computing and decentralized infrastructure, announced the completion of a $10 million seed funding round. The round was led by Maven11 and Lattice, with participation from Superscrypt, the Arbitrum Foundation, Nascent, Offchain Labs, HashKey, and Chorus One. The funds will be used to launch the first satellites carrying SpaceTEE and accelerate the construction of its secure computing network in orbit.
SpaceComputer aims to create a highly secure blockchain infrastructure deployed in orbit, leveraging the physical isolation of the space environment to enhance the overall trustworthiness of on-chain asset management, random number generation, and cryptographic computation. The official name for this model is Orbital Root of Trust, designed to provide a final layer of security for global decentralized systems, independent of Earth's environment.
Why does trust need to be "as high as the heavens"?
SpaceComputer chose to send its nodes into space because it believes the orbital environment possesses security attributes that are difficult to replicate completely on the ground. Furthermore, the satellites' location in space reduces the possibility of direct pressure from a single jurisdiction, and once deployed, significantly increases the cost of intrusion and forced access.
Each satellite is equipped with a Trusted Execution Environment called SpaceTEE, a specially designed hardware-level secure zone that ensures all encrypted computations and data processing are performed in a private space, where even the satellite operator cannot spy on or tamper with the contents.
When a blockchain node is placed on a track, it is no longer an ordinary computer, but more like a digital safe floating outside the earth, becoming a high-level trust anchor that the global decentralized system can rely on.
Space "Vault" and Ground "Hall"
To balance security and transaction speed, SpaceComputer has constructed a two-tier architecture consisting of "Orbital L1" and "Ground L2". Orbital L1, Celestial Chain, is essentially a "final confirmation vault" floating in space. The satellite nodes here have limited bandwidth and storage, and are only responsible for handling tasks that determine the system's security. All states that truly need to be permanently written and cannot be tampered with are finally confirmed on this chain.
The corresponding ground-based L2, Uncelestial Chain, handles the vast majority of user operations. Leveraging higher throughput and lower latency, it can rapidly execute large volumes of transactions. Afterward, L2 submits a compiled state summary to L1, where the space layer provides the final stamp, ensuring all ground transactions inherit the highest security level from the orbital layer.
SpaceComputer calls this collaborative mode "Space-Native Confidential Compute," which is more secure than on the ground and extremely difficult to tamper with.
Applications of "superpowers" unique to space
Leveraging the extreme physical isolation of the orbital environment, SpaceComputer is able to provide a range of highly secure services that no server on Earth can replicate.
For example, the project's first product, the "Cosmic Random Number Generator (cTRNG)," has already been launched for testing. It utilizes random physical phenomena such as cosmic rays captured in space to transform the naturally unpredictable activity of these particles into truly random numbers. This entropy source, which is extremely difficult to manipulate, minimizes potential backdoors in the design of encryption keys, on-chain lotteries, and consensus algorithms.
Space also offers capabilities for data privacy that are impossible on Earth. For example, in an orbital environment, once a "Secure Deletion" command is executed, physical conditions make data recovery virtually impossible, providing a completely new solution for applications with stringent compliance requirements. Simultaneously, the trusted execution environment inside a satellite can act as a "Trusted Co-processor," performing highly sensitive encrypted calculations for other blockchain systems. Even during computation, the data remains sealed and will not be leaked to any external entity.
To ensure the blockchain world has an independent and immutable historical record, SpaceComputer also plans to have its L1 orbit serve as a "bulletin-board." Satellites will periodically record state summaries of each blockchain; these records cannot be tampered with by ground-based forces. Even if a chain suffers a 51% attack or a major fork, the historical snapshots in space will still serve as a reliable audit trail.
Team Background and Future Plans
SpaceComputer's team comprises members from the fields of cryptography, satellite systems, and blockchain infrastructure. The core is driven by co-founders Daniel Bar and Filip Rezabek, with Filip being one of the main authors of the project's blue paper, responsible for technical direction and system design.
The project advisors come from multiple related disciplines. Distributed systems scholar Dahlia Malkhi, who co-authored the blue paper and served as an advisor, is currently a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and also serves as the principal research scientist at the oracle facility Chainlink. Space advisor Yonatan Winetraub, co-founder of the Israeli private space company SpaceIL, was involved in driving the 2019 private lunar mission and provided insights into the project's satellite hardware planning. Yan Michalevsky, founder of the crypto-satellite company Cryptosat, also joined the advisory team, focusing on orbital systems and cybersecurity.
SpaceComputer previously completed a Pre-Seed round led by Primitive Ventures. The latest $10 million seed funding will primarily be used for the construction, testing, and launch of the first "SpaceTEE" satellites, as well as for further development of network software and satellite collaboration systems.
According to the project roadmap, SpaceComputer is advancing into the "first system launch and network launch" phase, planning to send multiple small satellites into low Earth orbit around 2026 to start the test network operation in orbit L1, laying the foundation for subsequent functional expansion.
New frontiers of trusted computing
Security is a perennial issue for blockchain infrastructure. SpaceComputer believes that the space environment can constitute the ultimate confirmation layer for on-chain activities: the physical isolation in orbit makes it a trusted and secure source independent of nations, regulations, and ground attacks, providing a new foundation of trust for global cryptographic protocols, financial institutions, and next-generation Web3 applications.
Disclaimer: As a blockchain information platform, the articles published on this site represent only the personal views of the authors and guests and do not reflect the position of Web3Caff. The information contained in the articles is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice or offer. Please comply with the relevant laws and regulations of your country or region.
Welcome to the official Web3Caff community : Twitter account | Web3Caff Research Twitter account | WeChat reader group | WeChat official account
