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Comment by paul_f | Hacker News Reader

Be careful, everytime I make this point I get berated by the Spacex fan boys. The reality is, making high speed trading faster adds no true value to society. And therefore I find this entire project sad.

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SpaceX is launching the initial constellation without the laser links required for the hypothetical low latency service for traders. This would never happen if traders were the only or primary market. SpaceX has stated that their target is the consumer market and their actions are in line with that.

Source? There is no indication whatsoever that the service will be cheap enough to be for the consumer market. In fact, all serious cost analyses show it's not.

Shotwell said $80 a month.

https://spacenews.com/spacex-plans-to-start-offering-starlin...

You don't need inter-satellite links for low latency, as Mark Handley has elegantly pointed out in his incredible video. I don't think internet access will amount to even 50% of the revenue of Starlink.

https://youtu.be/m05abdGSOxY

You don't need satellites at all to beat fiber. Terrestrial microwave does it too. Starlink can't beat microwave except for places where it's impossible to install microwave, like over the ocean. But without cross links Starlink won't work over the ocean either.

Specious comment because if SpaceX funds itself from HFT their goal is to make life interplanetary which is arguably the best thing to do for society.

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