Startup Space Exploration and Research Agency (SERA) has leveraged Coinbase’s Base network for its Space Summer NFT drop, giving buyers a chance to secure a seat on a Blue Origin flight to low Earth orbit aboard the New Shepard rocket.
As part of the cryptocurrency exchange’s “On-Chain Summer,” citizen science organization SERA will mint three space-themed tokens on the Base Layer 2 network. Purchasing the NFTs will give holders access to SERA’s astronaut recruitment program, which will be available online in the coming weeks.
NFT holders will be eligible to win one of six seats reserved by SERA on the upcoming mission of Jeff Bezos-founded Blue Origin New Shepard rocket. By purchasing all three tokens, holders will automatically be fast-tracked to Phase 1 of the astronaut selection process, and will be able to move directly to Phase 2.
“This is about opening up space to everyone,” Sam Hutchinson, SERA co-founder and former rocket engineer, told The Block.
The remaining five seats are reserved for astronauts from countries that have never sent astronauts into space or have sent very few astronauts into space (including India, Nigeria, and Small Island Developing States (SIDS)). Token holders can also participate in the selection process.
The voting process will also take place on-chain. “This is a historic moment, so we need to combine KYC with blockchain-based voting to ensure that the voting process is fair and transparent,” Hutchinson said.
Specifically, when aboard the SERA program, users will receive a mission badge in the form of an NFT that will help track how they voted at various stages of the astronaut selection process. “Voting information is transparent to the community, so they know there are no fingers on the scale,” Hutchinson said.
“If we leverage blockchain where we think there are very powerful use cases, it could help expand access to space exploration and research, or create the kind of transparency that has historically been lacking in space exploration,” he added.
About 660 people have been in space, most of them from three countries: the United States, Russia, and China. SERA has already helped balance the scales by securing a spot on the Blue Origin rocket in 2022 for Victor Hespaña, a 28-year-old civil engineer from Minas Gerais, Brazil, who also went through a token voting process.
“Space is inherently a decentralized concept,” SERA co-founder Joshua Scala told The Block. “We looked at the equation and said, if there’s a way to bring together a large number of space enthusiasts, from deep tech people to sci-fi fanboys, and align everyone through stakeholders in the spirit of Web3 here, then we can do that.”
In addition to being connected to crypto companies like Coinbase and being full of people who are interested in space, Scala also noted that the company is actively talking to several Web3 founders who are interested in space exploration, including Stellar founder Jed McCaleb, who is building a private space station through a new startup called Vast.
“SERA was founded to make the future of space exploration more inclusive by giving anyone the opportunity to participate,” Base founder Jesse Pollack said in a statement. “By making the on-chain global economy accessible to everyone, SERA is doing it for space.
“I think there is a very deep cultural synergy between Web3 and the space community. The space industry, particularly on the technology side, is motivated by the idea of greater socioeconomic freedom,” Hutchinson said. “That’s something we definitely feel with web3. They have very common long-term goals.”
Edit (August 16): Corrected spelling. Sam Hutchinson’s last name.
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