Dogecoin developers are working to use the Starlink satellite network, operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX firm, to conduct $DOGE transactions using offline using radio technology.
According to a blog post from the Dogecoin Foundation, developers Michi Lumin and Timothy Stebbing are working on “RadioDoge,” which would enable DOGE transactions to be processed without the use of an internet connection.
While the team admitted there’s a lot of work to be done before such transactions are viable, it noted RadioDoge would use “cheap and reliable Radio technology (HF/LoRaWAN) combined with the global Starlink satellite network.” Its goal would be to provide “wide-scale access to Dogecoin for people outside the reach of the traditional internet infrastructure.”
According to Michi Lumin, Principal Engineer at the Dogecoin Foundation, the team has been working on setting up a “Regional Hub” for RadioDoge to provide a testing ground for the new technology.
Both developers expect the first transaction formed on Libdogecoin, a programming library for creating DOGE projects, to be transmitted over 150 miles from Colorado to the Regional Hub. The Hub will then submit the transactions to Dogecoin’s testnet via the Starlink satellite network.
The team believes the new technology could stimulate Dogecoin’s adoption in emerging economies, helping the cryptocurrency become the “defeacto means for exchanging goods and services globally.”
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is notably an avid Dogecoin proponent, who has hinted his space exploration company could start accepting payments in the meme-inspired cryptocurrency. Tesla has started accepting DOGE payments on its website, allowing specific products such as its “cyberwhistle,” its “Giga Texas” belt buckle” and its “cyberquad” four-wheeler for kids to be bought with it. These items are all priced in DOGE, ranging from 12,020 coins for the four-wheeler to 300 DOGE for the cyberwhistle.
On Tesla’s Dogecoin support page, the firm notes that customers who send the wrong amount of DOGE to its address may see their orders get canceled, and adds that if an order is overpaid in the cryptocurrency the “overpayment amount will not be refunded to the original form of payment.”
Notably, Musk and Billy Markus have earlier this year pushed McDonald’s to accept DOGE as a payment method, but the fast-food giant ultimately did not move forward with such an integration.
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