Introduction

Internet access is widely recognized as a fundamental human right, essential for accessing information, services, and opportunities; it plays a critical role in modern society.1 To realize this ideal is not a simple task, however, as it is highly fragmented and often under centralized control by various organizations across disparate legal and regulatory jurisdictions.2 This can be problematic as centralization opens up the potential for single points of failure to form and enables these providers to either censor or deny service to specific users perniciously.3 For example, millions of Canadians experienced a 19-hour service outage due to a network failure by Rogers Telecom,4 and over 900 million internet users in China live under the notoriously restrictive measures of the Great Firewall.5 Centralization also exacerbates the digital divide by the centralization of internet infrastructure investments in more affluent countries, leaving poorer regions with inadequate coverage and access, thereby perpetuating economic and social inequalities.

Addressing these challenges necessitates the development of a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) for reliable internet access that is both economically competitive and capable of offering coverage in challenging locations. You can build a new network and link it to the global internet (e.g., Guifi.net),7 or go even further and decentralize aspects of its operations (e.g., Helium).8 However, terrestrial systems inherently have limited coverage–a typical Wi-Fi router barely covers 100 m²,9 while the theoretical coverage of a cell tower is limited to 40 km².10 In contrast, Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO) satellites can cover 1,000,000 km²,11 suggesting that a network of 511 satellites can effectively and efficiently offer coverage around the world.

Crucially, incorporating a native token into the Space AI framework facilitates transparency and peer-to-peer transmissions while mitigating the drawbacks that inevitably arise in centralized endeavors. Furthermore, the network of decentralized nodes ensures open and transparent operations and introduces incentives for participants to deploy new satellites or augment bandwidth in targeted areas.