Blockchain startup SpaceChain has won a 60,000 euro grant from the European Space Agency (ESA) to investigate use-cases for their satellite-based blockchain wallet system.

Announced today by the company, the grant by the ESA’s “kick-start activities” fund bolsters SpaceChain’s efforts to put a hyper-secure, multi-signature, distributed satellite network in orbit. The company has already flight-tested blockchain nodes in space.

The tech uses a three signature system, with two ground-based signatures and a third in orbit, on the satellite. Each transaction requires at least two of the three signatures to complete.

Zee Zheng, SpaceChain’s co-founder and CEO, told CoinDesk that his satellite-based nodes are far more secure than terrestrial networks processing on the open internet with data and protocols uplinking directly to the satellite.

“We don’t need internet access to perform this kind of transaction,” Zheng said, “which eliminates a lot of potential risks for hacking.”

“We are looking at a market that last year saw $1 billion in crypto stolen. That will be much much more difficult for hackers [on our system],” he added.

Zheng called his grant from the ESA an opportunity for the crypto community to learn more about blockchain space applications. He noted developers’ high interest in the security upside.

“We want to use this opportunity to showcase how space can benefit the blockchain space,” Zheng said. He added SpaceChain plans to launch three times over the next 18 months.

Space image via Shutterstock