Starcloud, a space data center company, has raised nearly $500 million and is valued at over $2 billion to mine bitcoin from Earth orbit. Mining cryptocurrency in space is more expensive than on Earth due to launch costs, the difficulty of radiating heat in a vacuum, the inability to switch energy sources, and orbital maintenance expenses. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and engineering experts have debunked the concept, stating it would require tens of thousands of launches and a solar and radiator array spanning four kilometers. The company has already sent one Nvidia H100 GPU into space, but it cannot run at full power because the satellite overheats. Even achieving a fraction of its goals would take over a decade and cost far more than the $500 million already raised.
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