From OG Bitcoin Miner to Astronaut

Chun Wang’s superb life: From former Bitcoin miner to astronaut

On March 31, 2025, Chun Wang, co-founder of the historic Bitcoin mining pool f2pool, launched as mission commander of Fram2, the primary manned spacecraft to enter polar orbit. SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience launched from Kennedy House Middle on a Falcon 9 rocket and entered a 90-degree retrograde inclined orbit passing immediately over the North and South Poles. No earlier manned mission had ever achieved this orbit. The best ever inclination for people in orbit was 65 levels on the Soviet Vostok 6 flight in 1963.

In an unique interview with Bitcoin Journal, Wang shared considered one of his most memorable moments in house: “I do not bear in mind a lot about being in house, however as I regarded down on the Earth spinning under me, I simply saved pondering: We have been flying so quick. “How can we get again to the bottom if we’re doing so? The space itself is not actually that lengthy, lower than 500km, however what’s vital is the large distinction in velocity. That is after I remembered what I discovered in regards to the uncertainty precept,” he added. It references Heisenberg’s 1927 bodily theorem. This theorem states that there’s an inherent restrict to the precision with which a given pair of bodily properties of a quantum particle will be recognized concurrently. Essentially the most well-known pair is place (x) and momentum (p, the product of mass and velocity).

He goes on to say, “Δx ⋅ Δp ≥ ℏ/2: Place solely is smart if we take into account momentum collectively; each decide whether or not two our bodies can really ‘meet’. Right here, distance is not only the distinction in place vectors. The speed vector should even be thought of. ” The 2 objects he was most likely contemplating have been the Earth and the Fram2 spacecraft he was on, each of which have been transferring at unbelievable speeds and will simply have handed one another for a touchdown and not using a good engineer’s mind.

Wang led an all-civilian crew of first-time astronauts. The automobile is led by Norwegian movie director and polar explorer Jannicke Mikkelsen, piloted by German robotics researcher Lavea Rogge, and mission specialist Eric Phillips, an Australian polar explorer. The mission lasted three and a half days with out docking to the Worldwide House Station. The principle goal was to look at the polar Earth and conduct 22 analysis experiments.

House might have been Wang’s most excessive vacation spot, however it wasn’t his first. Mr. Wang is on a self-declared mission to go to each area on Earth, and his X profile describes it as “Documenting journey to each nation/area of the world based on ISO 3166: 60% (150 of 249) accomplished for one planet/moon and nonetheless ongoing.” To this point, he has accomplished greater than 1,153 numerous flights around the globe, together with current visits to Antarctica and the Polar Areas, averaging 36 flights per 12 months.

However Mr. Wang wasn’t at all times such an avid traveler. Born in Tianjin, China in 1982, Wang was 5 years outdated when a world map introduced house by his grandfather sparked a lifelong obsession with exploration, however it wasn’t till early maturity that he started touring the world after a legendary profession as an early Bitcoin miner and pool operator. Computer systems have been launched early in his life. He heard about computer systems at age 7, and by age 13 he owned his first 486 SX working MS-DOS. He discovered to code video games and planetary gravity simulations. In school, he entered programming competitions, however dropped out with out incomes a level and moved to software-related jobs all through China.

Bitcoin entered his world in Might 2011. Wang noticed two articles on the Chinese language expertise web site Solidot and spent the evening studying the Bitcoin wiki. “Out of curiosity, I opened the en.bitcoin.it wiki hyperlink and studied all of it evening. I lastly understood all the things. It was like discovering a brand new world,” he wrote in his 2015 memoir. He borrowed $40,000 from his father, mined at 800 khash/s on a MacBook, and scaled up with a GPU he purchased in Zhongguancun. Within the first two years, he personally mined 7,700 $BTCthe revenue after electrical energy prices is about 2,700. He offered most of it for $11 in January 2013 to repay the mortgage.

Early GPU mining rigs in China. The sort of setup Chun Wang used earlier than founding f2pool. (Credit score: f2pool official historical past)

In April 2013, Wang co-founded f2pool with Mao Shihang, recognized on-line as Discus Fish. They established in Wenzhou. Wang coded the backend. Discus Fish was answerable for the operation. The pool was launched on Might fifth and has grown quickly, accounting for a few third of Bitcoin’s hashrate at its peak.

To this point, f2pool has mined over 1.3 million $BTCgreater than 9 % of all blocks ever created. It is without doubt one of the largest and longest-running mining swimming pools in Bitcoin historical past. Throughout the 2017 block measurement wars, this pool performed a quiet however decisive function in supporting Bitcoin’s Nakamoto consensus. Wang later stated, “Proof of labor is Bitcoin’s structure. Respect mining, respect miners. With out miner assist, SegWit wouldn’t have been activated and the Lightning Community wouldn’t have been doable.”

From 2014 to the early 2020s, Wang continued to function f2pool whereas navigating modifications within the business, together with transferring operations abroad resulting from China’s mining crackdown in 2021. In 2017, he mentioned the upcoming proof-of-stake period with Vitalik Buterin. This dialog led him to launch stake.fish in 2018. It’s a non-custodial staking service that has turn into one of many largest validators throughout Ethereum, Polkadot, Solana, and different networks. This transfer diversifies his infrastructure enterprise throughout the broader cryptocurrency business and brings his expertise as a large-scale operator to the quickly altering crypto market.

to the moon

Chun Wang (far proper) contained in the Crew Dragon capsule with the Fram2 crew strapped down for launch. (Credit score: From SpaceX) house dot com)

The subsequent frontier was house. Wang had been pitching a non-public polar orbit mission to SpaceX beginning in 2023. He financed all the Fram2 flight himself by promoting Bitcoin. There aren’t any sponsors or authorities assist. The staff skilled for eight months in a simulator in California, getting ready for high-G spins, zero gravity flight, emergency coaching and polar survival.

The launch happened on April 1, 2025 from Kennedy House Middle. Mr. Wang commanded from the commander’s chair. “The journey to orbit was a lot smoother than I anticipated. I did not really feel a lot G-force apart from the ultimate moments earlier than SECO. Actually, it felt like I used to be on one other flight,” he posted. The one time he seen zero grams was when he unintentionally loosened a small stuffed polar bear and it began floating. The complete crew skilled house illness on the primary day. “It did not really feel like movement illness in a automotive or on the seashore. Studying on my iPad did not make it worse, however even a small sip of water may trigger an upset abdomen.”

By the second day, the nausea had subsided. “I really feel fully refreshed. All traces of movement illness are gone.” They opened a cupola over Antarctica. “Good day, Antarctica. From 460 kilometers up, it is pitch white and you’ll’t see any human exercise.” The crew performed 22 experiments in three and a half days. It is the primary human X-ray in house, together with hand scanning with a hoop, a mirrored image of Roentgen’s authentic 1895 X-rays, rising oyster mushrooms for the Mars meals code Mission MushVroom, monitoring feminine hormones with urine strips, radiation monitoring, blood stream restriction, cellular MRI, sleep monitoring, and extra. Radiation information confirmed that the South Atlantic anomaly, slightly than the poles, produced the very best radiation doses. Actually, polar orbit reduces time within the zone in comparison with the ISS path, and this was highlighted by the journey’s spotlight discovery.

View of Antarctica from the Fram2 cupola. (Credit score: Fram2 crew by way of House.com)

The splashdown occurred off the coast of California on April 4th. Wang shared radiation graphs in March 2026, confirming that polar radiation publicity was decrease than anticipated. A full scientific paper on the experiment has not but been revealed.

Since then, Wang has not often sat nonetheless, receiving his astronaut wings from SpaceX and heading again on the street with NASA’s Johnson inspection behind him. In March 2026, he arrived at Bouvet Island, the one hundred and fiftieth territory out of 249 on his journey checklist, by way of ship and helicopter, spending 201 hours on the ice earlier than heading to Cape City. He information his flights and retains his X account up to date with images, charts, and occasional ideas on Bitcoin and crypto expertise.

March 2026, helicopter departure from Bouvet Island — Trung Wan’s one hundred and fiftieth territory. (Credit score: Chun Wang, X/@Satofishi)

This text, “The Wonderful Lifetime of Chun Wang: From OG Bitcoin Miner to Astronaut” was first revealed in Bitcoin Journal and written by Juan Galt.