According to U.Today, Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko has introduced a new cryptocurrency called BunkerCoin as an April Fools' Day joke. Yakovenko published a white paper describing BunkerCoin as a groundbreaking blockchain protocol designed to operate under the constraints of low bandwidth networks. The coin is supposed to operate through shortwave radio channels, with miners incentivized to confirm blocks and maintain network security using a novel proof of elapsed time verifiable delay function (VDF). The consensus mechanism of the protocol would be based on the Nakamoto-style longest chain rule, allowing all nodes to agree on the chain's appearance.
While BunkerCoin is a joke, the idea of transmitting cryptocurrency through radio is not new. In 2019, Rodolfo Novak, co-founder of crypto startup CoinKite, sent a first-of-its-kind Bitcoin transaction via ham radio. Additionally, in 2014, Finnish Bitcoin enthusiasts developed a project called Kryptoradio, which enables the transmission of blockchain information.