our mission
SkyMapper’s mission is to revolutionize astronomical research by merging cutting-edge telescope and camera technology with Web3 innovation to democratize space exploration.
This decentralized network empowers astronomers, researchers, and enthusiasts worldwide to collaboratively observe, analyze, and share cosmic discoveries, like never before.
SkyMapper is building the world’s first decentralized telescope network capable of responding to cosmic events in under two minutes, faster than many professional observatories limited by schedules and bureaucracy. Led by a team that blends deep astronomical expertise with blockchain innovation, SkyMapper ensures that every observation is immutable, verifiable, and accessible.
By connecting citizen scientists around the globe, SkyMapper creates a community-powered observatory while preserving professional-grade standards through AI-driven analysis and secure blockchain storage. The platform’s continuous sky coverage enables discoveries that centralized observatories can’t match, whether tracking hazardous asteroids or space debris, confirming exoplanets, or capturing rare phenomena, like supernovae.
With plans to scale to thousands of telescopes across every continent, and into orbit, SkyMapper is positioning itself as the backbone for humanity’s extension into space.
SkyMapper is building the world’s first decentralized telescope network capable of responding to cosmic events in under two minutes, faster than many professional observatories limited by schedules and bureaucracy. Led by a team that blends deep astronomical expertise with blockchain innovation, SkyMapper ensures that every observation is immutable, verifiable, and accessible.
By connecting citizen scientists around the globe, SkyMapper creates a community-powered observatory while preserving professional-grade standards through AI-driven analysis and secure blockchain storage. The platform’s continuous sky coverage enables discoveries that centralized observatories can’t match, whether tracking hazardous asteroids or space debris, confirming exoplanets, or capturing rare phenomena, like supernovae.
With plans to scale to thousands of telescopes across every continent, and into orbit, SkyMapper is positioning itself as the backbone for humanity’s extension into space.
at its core, we love astronomy, and we are tech innovators
Passionate about Astronomy
Astronomy means many different things, especially for our teams at SkyMapper. For some, the love for astronomy stems from a profound scientific and research background.
While others find their inspiration in stories, films, or simply evenings spent stargazing with a backyard telescope. And some are drawn to astronomy by a fascination with space exploration and cutting-edge technologies. These varied viewpoints collectively power SkyMapper’s mission: to make the universe more accessible, more collaborative, and more exciting for everyone.
While others find their inspiration in stories, films, or simply evenings spent stargazing with a backyard telescope. And some are drawn to astronomy by a fascination with space exploration and cutting-edge technologies. These varied viewpoints collectively power SkyMapper’s mission: to make the universe more accessible, more collaborative, and more exciting for everyone.
“Astronomy is a unifying force, enriching lives and inspiring new generations. Universal access to telescope observations, transcends boundaries and opens the universe to diverse audiences, from students to citizen scientists. Our vision focuses on concrete ways to foster global collaboration, empower exploration of fundamental questions, and ignite discovery beyond astronomy's abstract perception.”
Franck Marchis
Ph.D. – Co-Founder & CEO
“Our partnership with Akave demonstrates astronomy's transformative power through innovative data storage. Astronomy is commercially viable, and understanding space is vital for humanity's expansive curiosity. Blockchain and web3 provide secure, decentralized platforms essential for managing vast astronomical data. This ensures long-term accessibility, data integrity, and accelerates discoveries enabling humanity's journey beyond Earth.”
Stefaan Vervaet
Co-Founder
Passionate about Innovation
Skymapper is at the forefront of applying blockchain technology to astronomy within the Web3 domain. It demonstrates the value of decentralized, immutable data storage, ensuring all collected astronomical data is a verifiable, permanent, and unalterable on-chain record.
Distinguishing itself from traditional, centralized networks, SkyMapper leverages a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN), which relies on a global community of observers who are rewarded for their contributions. This approach fosters trust and provides transparent, tamper-proof data accessible to all, thereby eliminating issues of scientific research provenance.
Distinguishing itself from traditional, centralized networks, SkyMapper leverages a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN), which relies on a global community of observers who are rewarded for their contributions. This approach fosters trust and provides transparent, tamper-proof data accessible to all, thereby eliminating issues of scientific research provenance.
“Blockchain and web3 technologies are foundational to SkyMapper's mission of democratizing astronomy and ensuring scientific data integrity through immutable, tamper-proof storage and universal accessibility. Like the early internet, web3 combines innovation with speculation, but represents a fundamental shift toward open, verifiable, collaborative scientific infrastructure. We’re proud that SkyMapper is leading the movement to transform astronomical research.”
Franck Marchis
Ph.D. – Co-Founder & CEO
“For us, blockchain provides immutable, verifiable astronomical data storage. SkyMapper's partnership with Akave Cloud ensures data authenticity with tokenomics which transparently rewards contributors through on-chain verification. This decentralized, community-powered approach enables rapid scaling and transforms astronomical data collection into a truly collaborative, rewarding, scientific endeavor.”
Stefaan Vervaet
Co-Founder
Leadership Team
Our Cosmic Commanders
Stefaan has 20 years of experience in the software space, where he helped build out successful startups in the enterprise data and storage management market. Head of Growth at Protocol Labs—responsible for growing the Filecoin network, one of the largest DePIN ZK networks in the world. Co-founder and CEO of Akave.ai
Guillermo (BSc, MSc, PhD, BTech) is a former member of the Spatial Data Committee in the Chilean Government, with over 20 years of experience in earth and spatial data, and 10 years of experience in blockchain technologies applied to sciences and climate change adaptation. Board member, Fintech and Blockchain Association.
Tom has over 15 years of experience in astronomical research, operating and analyzing data from world-class instruments. At Unistellar, he manages far-reaching science programs for the citizen astronomy network he helped build from the ground up. SETI Institute since 2020. Unistellar Space Science Principal.
Advisors
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
Talk to us
Fill out the contact form to get in touch with us! We’d love to hear from you.
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
.svg)