Blockstream has reportedly rolled out upgrades for their satellite network – the Bitcoin blockchain carrier – for the first time after 24 months. 

Specifically, the new upgrade has amped up the data rate by 25 times, as well as allowing for node syncing without an internet connection. 

The Blockstream satellite service reportedly offers Bitcoin (BTC) transaction facilitation and data sharing features without the Internet. A total of six geostationary satellites have been released by the firm, with a task to broadcast the blockchain to Africa, Europe, South and North America, and the Asia Pacific territory.

The Blockstream-developed Blockstream Satellite 2.0 reportedly comes with a standards-based transmission protocol, enhanced bandwidth, additional coverage areas, and “the ability to sync a Bitcoin full node all the way from the genesis block up to today.”

“Instead of requiring users to connect their Bitcoin full node to the internet for the initial sync—as was the case with 1.0—Blockstream Satellite 2.0 now enables full history synchronization! Blockstream Satellite users can hook up a Bitcoin full node and fully download the entirety of the Bitcoin blockchain, from the original 2009 genesis block right up to today’s latest transactions…absolutely no internet required!”

These newly rolled out upgrades marked the first for the application programming interface (API) released in December 2 years ago, to their first version of the protocol rolled out in August 2017. 

The DVB-S2 protocol for version 2.0 reportedly makes spectral more efficient and signal more reliable, along with providing higher bitrates, bringing up data capacity and bandwidth.