If I Made a DHF Proposal (HiveCubeSat)
I first started thinking about this when @lasseehlers made his 60,000 HBD DHF proposal. I am sure we all remember what a dumpster fire that was, so there’s no need to rehash it. If you missed that drama, don’t worry — I have his video announcing that atrocity archived, and sooner or later I’ll get around to making and posting a parody “If Sir Sic Did Crypto Videos” on YouTube.
Anyway, I started wondering what I would hypothetically do for a DHF proposal and what actually makes a "good" DHF proposal. If I were to create one, these are the criteria I’d go by:
No direct financial gain for myself or any “insiders.”
The project should be broken into small stages, with each stage getting its own funding proposal and only advancing once the previous stage proves itself.
The spending should be fully documentable and publicly transparent.
Clear value for the Hive blockchain — bonus points if it has mainstream news potential.
After a few days of brainstorming, this is what I came up with:
Image Source: Dall-E
Imagine a DHF proposal for a tiny, fully functional 1U CubeSat — a real satellite in space, sending real sensor data back down to Earth for the Hive community to track and archive. A literal cube in orbit powered by sunlight, Hive vibes, and a little amateur radio magic.
In principle, I could actually make this proposal. I have an associate’s degree in electronics and an Amateur Extra Class radio license (callsign W3DTV). But realistically, a project like this would require several months of full-time work - time I simply don’t have right now. Maybe someone else will run with the idea.
Picture a small aluminum cube roughly the size of a Rubik’s Cube — 10 cm on each side. Inside:
a simple microcontroller,
a couple of small sensors (temperature, magnetometer, etc.),
a UHF transceiver to transmit the data back to Earth and onto the Hive blockchain.
Bolt it all together into a 1U CubeSat, stick it in a deployer, and blast our baby into low Earth orbit as part of a rideshare mission.
At first I thought about how awesome it would be to give HiveCubeSat a camera, but after some research I found out that adding a camera to a private satellite requires a NOAA license — meaning more paperwork and more cost to this hypothetical proposal. So for a DHF proposal, probably not worth it. Flat Earthers would scream "FAKE! CGI!" anyway no matter what.
Once in orbit, HiveCubeSat would start chirping telemetry - beeps, bytes, and packets that HAM operators like me could decode and post onto the Hive blockchain for permanent storage.
Hive users could follow the satellite’s health, track its orbit, and watch its sensor readings change as it loops around the planet.
Image Source: DALL-E
As an Amateur Extra Class operator, I could legally transmit in the amateur bands with proper IARU coordination and tap into the SatNOGS network — a global open-source system of ground stations. Anyone with a modest antenna setup could listen in and decode HiveCubeSat’s beacons.
The downlink would be public. The uplink (commands and tweaks) could be handled through a licensed ground station or a partner station.
And yes all raw data — voltage levels, temperature readings, magnetometer outputs — could be published live on the Hive blockchain. A truly decentralized satellite feed.
There are several CubeSat build kits out there, but for a shoestring budget DHF proposal I’d probably choose Pumpkin’s 1U CubeSat Kit — simple, modular, and flight-tested.
Pair it with:
a low-power GomSpace or ISIS UHF transceiver,
a small onboard computer,
the necessary solar panels and power system,
…and Hive would have a tech stack capable of surviving launch.
For launch, I’d likely choose Exolaunch as the rideshare broker. They handle integration and paperwork for small CubeSats and work with SpaceX and others.
Based on my rough estimate, the entire HiveCubeSat project - from beginning to launch — would cost around 100,000 HBD. Compared to some of the current proposals that already have enough support to receive funding in the next DHF round, a 100k HBD budget doesn’t seem unreasonable. Nearly half of that would go to Exolaunch for the ride to space and management support.
But who am I kidding? We all know what my DHF proposal would actually be for. After all, I’m Holovision — one of the lowest-tier villains in Batman’s rogue gallery. Obviously I’d steal a prototype WayneTech miniaturized laser and smuggle it aboard HiveCubeSat to reenact the best scene from Real Genius.
It would still be worth the 100,000 HBD.