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STRANGE: Hacker Hijacks Earth-Orbiting Satellite To Broadcast Cryptic Messages

A cryptocurrency enthusiast somewhere in Eastern Europe was apparently able to hijack a satellite high up in the sky to broadcast a rambling series of messages written in a post-apocalyptic like style.

Twitter user @notgrubles shared what he discovered while looking through “satellite API” data:

Some interesting data I’ve received from the #SatelliteAPI broadcast. Seems like someone broadcasted a little journal.

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The message:

File must be bigger than 1kB so some story time, I hope I’m not doxing myself. I discovered bitcoin during the silk road era, but after researching the means to buy some mushroom, I found it too complicated to buy and tumble bitcoin before sending a payment, so I didn’t [buy] any. I kept a small amount of attention on bitcoin, and in 2016-217 started to [follow] it closely, playing on testnet, and getting my skin in the game in 2017. The last year was amazing, I learned a lot, sent my first lightning testnet payment in early 2018, and was blown away, and got dizzy of the possibilities of the fast, cheap bitcoin micropayment possibilities.

So here I am, left my job, I have some money to keep me up, and I’m building my first raspberry pi lightning node, and broadcasting messages from satellites, still feels surreal [at] times.

So if you want to support some anon dev from a post soviet state, have at it, and thanks. My dream is to accumulate 1 btc, and I think that will be more than enough for the future.

day 2:

Still hard to grasp the fact that I’m blanketing a big part of Earth with my message, on demand, instantly. I’m wondering [is] anybody reading this message? Maybe a portion of the photons are missing the Earth, and [are] traveling in space for billions of years.

day 3:

I’m curious how long will this trial time last, that I can broadcast myself to the [Earth] for testnet coins, anyway I’m loving it.

day 4:

love you

day 5:

I can’t decide which is cooler, to use a satellite for this silly message to reach the surface of the Earth, or using the lightning instant payment network, both feel utterly awesome, I think I will tell this tale for my grandkids someday, maybe in a postcivilization wasteland, but still. Without bitcoin I wouldn’t have too much faith for the future.

Continuing:

day 6:

My plan is to create an uncensorable, unbannable site, where [everyone] is allowed to talk about and share, nobody can ban anything for anyone, and nobody can delete anything, even their own posts, I hate when people are posting something on Twitter or Facebook, and later deleting it. Everybody should stand by their written words.

I think Bitcoin, Lightning, IPFS and other technologies are needed to accomplish this, maybe the computational capacity of the network is not enough today, but it will be.

day 7:

2 days ago a random puppy ran to me at a park from 10 meters, I petted him pretty good, and she didn’t want to follow her owner after it. good day.

day 8:

I still can’t get used to this, how I’m able to use a satellite, better than a sci-fi. I should set up a dish to verify I’m actually sending the messages, but on Twitter they say it’s really working.

Main Image Credit: Space.com

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