Press & primary sources
We didn't write about doing it. We did it, then wrote about it.
Every claim on this site traces back to one of the documents below: published coverage of the in-orbit transaction, founder interviews, the app's original introduction, and the patent filing itself.
On the record
Coverage and documents.
Dec 2020
SovereignSky, SpaceQuest and RUON AI sign one of the first ever blockchain transactions in space
The announcement of the AprizeSat-5 result, including SpaceQuest CEO Dino Lorenzini's verification log and the roadmap to an eight-satellite fleet.
Interview
SovereignSky co-founders talk about the first space-based blockchain on Solo TV
A long-form conversation with the founders on why the ledger belongs in orbit and how the aid layer is meant to work.
Mar 2021
Introducing RUON AI
The original introduction to the app now being rebranded as SpaceFile: wallet, account, smart card, and the post–stream–earn–spend–give model.
Archive
RUON AI publication
The full back catalogue of project updates, technical notes and partnership announcements.
Aug 2022
Mission Space — space telescopes to host SovereignSky BEOS nodes
The partnership to anchor 4 to 16 BEOS nodes on a constellation of orbiting optical telescopes, with network tokens usable to buy observing time.
Dec 2019
IEO and patents announced after the AprizeSat-5 upload
The founding announcement: the BEOS upload to SpaceQuest's test satellite, the 501-page IP filing, the connectivity-box distribution plan and the poverty figures behind it.
Jan 2019
Why RUON AI is the network for the crypto generation, by Stan Larimer
Larimer's original case for pairing a social and banking application with a sovereign ledger operating beyond any single jurisdiction.
Filing
Patent application WO2021030288A1
The published 365-page international application covering the space-based blockchain and its delivery network.
On the record
One of the first blockchain transactions ever signed in space.
13 December 2020, aboard AprizeSat-5 — confirmed byte for byte against the ground checksum.
History
Ten years of building, in order.
Drawn from the project's own published record on the RUON publication — the name now being retired in favour of SpaceFile.
2018
SpaceQuest launches and tests satellites capable of carrying the Sovereign chain, including a December 2018 ride aboard SpaceX.
Jan 2019
Stan Larimer publishes the case for a social and banking network built on a sovereign, off-world ledger.
Dec 2019
The BEOS hybrid chain is uploaded to SpaceQuest's AprizeSat-5 for live testing, three times daily. A 501-page IP application covering social intelligence, space-based blockchains and AI is filed.
Dec 2020
One of the first blockchain transactions ever signed in space is executed aboard AprizeSat-5 and verified by SpaceQuest.
Aug 2021
The international application publishes as WO2021030288A1, covering the orbital ledger and its delivery network.
Aug 2022
Mission Space agrees to host 4 to 16 BEOS nodes on its orbiting telescope platforms. The SovereignSky whitepaper, 'The World's New Operating System', is published.
Now
The project moves under the SuperFile brand. RUON becomes SpaceFile, and five years of AI progress folds into the network design.
Partners of record
Who built it alongside us.
In their words
Quotes from the record.
“The project is so all-encompassing it has taken some of the smartest, most visionary minds in blockchain, aerospace, mobile technology, and even science fiction to achieve its grand vision and a new space economy.”
Stan Larimer — Co-founder, SovereignSky
“This is a major step forward in our goal to provide orphanages on Earth a connectivity box, so people and companies in the developed world can choose exactly who to send electronic money to from space.”
Timothy Burke — Co-founder, SovereignSky
Ten years of primary sources.
Coverage, filings and founder interviews, all public.