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▲ recursive 6 hours ago

The real use case for satellite-borne data centers.

▲armadyl 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I fail to see how a satellite data center would fix this unless the company was entirely off planet

▲boznz 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Not as stupid or far-fetched as it sounds, only now you have to trust a company not a state. There are several companies I would trust with this, but there would be no state I would trust. Some good SciFi which explores this concept (including mine)

▲recursive 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Hell, the whole company could be located on that satellite if it transacts in crypto-currency.

▲bluGill 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Despite the hype, crypto is traceable. It is harder than other currencies and one transaction is probably untraceable. However if you are running a business you are going to get repeated payments from customers and repeatedly pay your employees and suppliers, which in turn creates enough data that they can track you down.

▲blakeashleyjr 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Mullvad accepts Monero (XMR), the most private and untraceable coin available today. Your point is correct for all others though.

▲cucumber3732842 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Mullvad will accept envelopes of cash. They go far and above any other company when it comes to helping their customers maintain anonymity.

▲bluGill 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

In the US, transactions over $10,000 need to be reported regardless. I don't know laws in Europe, but I would expect they have something similar. Which is to say, you can accept envelopes of cash only for relatively small amounts of money before you are going to get in trouble yourself. The government doesn't like tax fraud, and without the ability to trace things, they can prove tax fraud just because if there was no tax fraud, you wouldn't have a certain amount of money.

▲HWR_14 an hour ago | parent | next [-]

You don't have to report all transactions over $10,000 in cash. Your bank, where you will probably want to keep the money, will report all transaction over $10,000.

▲nom an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

i bet that payment option is used very rarely... its brilliant marketing that costs them almost nothing

people really like to mention the cash envelope, whoever came up with it is a genius

▲mitxela 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Fully legal for any company to do this btw. They just don't want to. Even in the EU, taking XMR payments is legal, or buying things with XMR, or holding XMR - it's only illegal to list on exchanges.

▲ 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]
[deleted]
▲dymk 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Where do the people live…

▲recursive 5 hours ago | parent [-]

This wouldn't work for companies that require humans for now.

▲Onavo 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Not possible. If all jurisdictions relinquish their claim over the satellite then it's open to being shot down.

The proliferation of space access goes both ways. LEO isn't exactly difficult to reach (many college teams can do it). GEO might work but then you need relays and any relay satellite are essentially tacitly complicit.

Satellite (and most aerospace related technologies) are glass cannons. They aren't defensible like a bunker or a tank.

▲rkagerer 4 hours ago | parent [-]

What if you had lots and lots and lots of them? Maybe even enough to cause debris problems if they were attacked. With relays into countries that don't overreach their privacy laws.

▲j16sdiz 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

if you can identify some country that is safe to relay to, why not just put it there?

▲halfcat 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> Maybe even enough to cause debris problems

Too late

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome

▲ninjagoo 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> The real use case for satellite-borne data centers.

Because of physics and the difficulties of rejecting heat in space, data centers in space aren't going to be a real thing until compute becomes more energy efficient by at least 50x-100x as compared to the present.

▲protocolture 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Satellites are very reliant on ground ops. Its much like crypto. You think all your stuff is in space, but the FBI agent has a wrench and will just break your kneecaps until you let him in. But also the FBI agent will pull your operating permit for the country your ground stations are in and take you offline.