Tech billionaire Elon Musk, his spacecraft engineering company SpaceX, and cryptocurrency company LunarCrush are scheduled to take Bitcoin (BTC) to the moon in the fall of 2023.

LunarCrush, in a recent press release, revealed its plan to take the world's first digital asset and the world's largest crypto asset by market capitalization Bitcoin to the moon.

Since Bitcoin is digital, the proponents of this initiative will send the treasure in the form of a private key to a crypto wallet that contains 62 Bitcoins or approximately $1.7 million, based on the current prevailing rate.

The Bitcoin bounty, called Nakamoto_1, inspired by the name of the crypto asset's creator, will be etched onto a Lunar Outpost MAPP Rover and will be transported to the moon by a SpaceX spacecraft, which is set to launch in the fall of this year.

This initiative is a treasure hunt of some sort and will be obtained by the first person who lands on the moon and finds the private key.

"When you put out a seemingly unachievable goal, the innovation that happens can be incredible," LunarCrush CEO Joe Vezzani said in a press release, noting that the company's "goal is to inspire people to build communities that will unlock a new era of exploration."

The executive also said that the initiative envisions "classrooms, groups, companies, and even DAOs coming together to reach the Moon and split the treasure chest's rewards. It's like Willy Wonka's 'golden ticket' for the Web3 era, and we couldn't be more excited to see how it all unfolds."

LunarCrush also disclosed that the engraving of the private key to the rover would be documented for transparency.

The team also decided not to share the exact date of SpaceX's launch for security reasons and ensured that even the contributing teams had no access to the private keys. When the rover lands on the moon, anyone can devise a plan to reach it and obtain the digital gold.

Interestingly, the wallet that holds the Bitcoin is open, which means that anyone can pitch in to raise the amount of the treasure.

"What may sound outlandish to some will open new frontiers that haven't been explored outside the mind in a long time. Future generations will look to us as pioneers of interplanetary exploration and adventure," Lunar Outpost co-founder and chief strategy officer Dr. Forrest Meyen said.

The Nakamoto_1 initiative is a project of LunarCrush, commercial planetary mobility Lunar Outpost, animation studio Golden Wolf and Bitcoin developer tools company Hiro.

Bitcoin saw a 0.78% gain over the past 24 hours and was trading in the green zone at $27,931.05 with a 24-hour volume of $19,218,354,488 as of 11:37 p.m. ET on Monday, based on the latest data from CoinMarketCap.

NASA's SpaceX Crew-6 launches on a mission to the International Space Station, in Cape Canaveral
Reuters
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