Planetary Resources (PR) was founded in 2012. The original mission of PR was to find and mine near-Earth asteroids for valuable resources. As I mentioned in a recent post, both water and platinum group metals are thought to exist in large quantities on asteroids. Larry Page, Eric Smidt, Ross Perot Jr. and Charles Simonyi all contributed a portion of their billions of dollars to the start up.
In the last six years, PR raised tens of millions of dollars. They also explored other revenue streams such as space construction robots, water as a satellite propellent, software-based radios and Earth-observation satellites. PR hoped to start asteroid prospecting in the early 2020s but the failure of an important round of funding sank the company.
PR had decided to auction off its equipment at its Redmond, Washington headquarters but the auction was put on hold. Now PR says that its assets have been purchased by the ConsenSys blockchain venture based in Boston.
ConsenSys is a production studio that creates enterprises for businesses based on the Ethereum platform for cryptocurrency and applications of blockchain. So far, fifty ventures or “spokes” have been created by ConsenSys. These include an online poker site, a legal services site and a “transmedia universe integrated with blockchain technology” called Cellarius.
ConsenSys was formed by Joe Lubin, the co-founder of the Ethereum cryptocurrency system. During the announcement of the acquisition, Lubin said, “world-class talent, its record of innovation, and for inspiring people across our planet in support of its bold vision for the future.” Lubin went on to say, “Bringing deep-space capabilities into the ConsenSys ecosystem reflects our belief in the potential for Ethereum to help humanity craft new societal rule systems through automated trust and guaranteed execution. And it reflects our belief in democratizing and decentralizing space endeavors to unite our species and unlock untapped human potential. We look forward to sharing our plans and how to join us on this journey in the months ahead.”
Chris Lewicki, the CEO and President of PR, said, “Over the course of nearly a decade, Planetary Resources has simultaneously pioneered technology, business, law and policy, and brought the promise of space resources irreversibly closer to humankind’s grasp,” he said. “I am proud of our team’s extraordinary accomplishments, grateful to our visionary supporters, and delighted to join ConsenSys in building atop our work to expand humanity’s economic sphere of influence into the solar system.”
Brian Israel was the chief counsel for PR. He said, “Ethereum smart contract functionality is a natural solution for private-ordering and commerce in space — the only domain of human activity not ordered around territorial sovereignty — in which a diverse range of actors from a growing number of countries must coordinate and transact.”
ConsenSys will operate its space agenda out of the old PR facility located in Redmond. Few details were provided on the deal because ConsenSys representative said that they were confidential. Analysts are curious about why a cryptocurrency company would want to acquire an asteroid mining startup.