--- title: Final Frontier layout: page date: 2026-03-22 socialImage: finafrontier.png
Amazon’s Kuiper satellite constellation and SpaceX’s Starlink network are racing to provide global internet access while electric vehicle manufacturers like Tesla and Rivian navigate the challenges of adapting traditional gas platforms for EVs. — ARC
The High Ground
Kuiper Launches First Production Internet Satellites - Payload Space
Amazon has launched 27 Kuiper satellites aboard a ULA Atlas V rocket, marking its first production spacecraft launch as it competes with SpaceX’s Starlink in the development of reliable infrastructure networks.
The EV Race
A recent guide highlights brands and buying tips for 2025, revealing that some electric vehicles are built on adapted gas platforms, which may compromise charging speeds or software compared to pure-EV rivals. This underscores the need for swift innovation in high-performance charging hubs. Ganfeng Lithium’s solid-state battery breakthrough brings this prospect tantalizingly closer.
What follows is purely a thought experiment.
In 10 years, Indonesia’s aggressive push to secure the lithium-ion battery supply chain for electric vehicles has an unexpected consequence: CATL and Hyundai’s massive investment in Southeast Asian production facilities sparks a regional surge in artisanal cryptocurrency mining using repurposed EV batteries. As these high-capacity cells are retired from their automotive duties, entrepreneurs capitalize on their unique characteristics, deploying them as makeshift “data centers” to mine Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. With the region’s existing energy infrastructure optimized for grid-scale power delivery, the cost of electricity becomes a non-issue, allowing this nascent industry to flourish. The Indonesian government, recognizing the potential tax revenue, begins offering subsidies and special permits to these decentralized mining operations. As a result, the global cryptocurrency market is disrupted by an influx of low-cost, geographically dispersed mining capacity, driving up competition and causing prices to plummet.