Williamson used a helium-filled weather balloon to send the
coin into the sky. Technically, it did not enter outer space; it remained in
earth’s atmosphere, sometimes colloquially called “inner space.”
Weather balloons typically achieve altitudes of less than 42
km, while outer space begins about 100 km above the surface of the Earth
The Dogecoin token began its flight in Austin, Texas. It
traveled over thirty miles before landing in a field. Williamson attached a GPS
tracker to the balloon, which allowed him to follow the balloon to its landing
location and recover it from a field.
It is not clear whether Williamson chose a coin with a
Dogecoin address embedded inside, or whether he merely used a novelty coin with
a picture of a Shiba Inu “doge” engraved on its surface.
Though Williamson’s project was a novelty, high-altitude
balloons are used for practical data collection purposes. At least one company,
Telokanda, is using blockchain and balloons to collect weather data.
A Tribute to Elon Musk
Williamson launched the balloon as a tribute to Elon Musk on
his 50th birthday. Musk has been involved with Dogecoin over the past several
months. After discussing it on Twitter, he eventually began to participate in
its development and consider it as a payment option.
Musk previously announced that a Dogecoin-funded SpaceX moon
mission will take place in 2022. SpaceX representatives have said that the
mission will apply “cryptocurrency beyond Earth orbit and set the foundation
for interplanetary commerce.”
Despite Musk’s frequent participation in the Dogecoin
community on Twitter, he has not yet responded to Williamson’s video. However,
Billy Markus, who created Dogecoin in 2013, took notice of the discussion
around the viral video, calling it a “fun thread.”
Dogecoin hit an all-time high of $0.73 on May 8. Since then,
prices have fallen as low as $0.17. As of June 29, the coin is worth $0.27.
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