Marscoin – Help bootstrap Mars exploration and colonization | Hacker News Reader

Marscoin – Help bootstrap Mars exploration and colonization

marscoin.org

15 pointsnovalis7817 comments

Obviously this is a scammy marketing ploy, but they didn't even consider basic design elements for a Martian currency =(

> Bitcoin's confirmation delay of 10 minutes per block is too long for a young cryptocurrency on Mars - miners on Earth could interfer with their tremendous hashing speed and even if that does not pose a problem, waiting for block confirmations from distant Earth is even less desirable.

Google informs me Mars is up to 401 Gm from earth, or 22minutes at the speed of light. The block time should be longer than this communications lag so that miners on Mars and Earth can efficiently sync. Therefore, Marscoin's short confirmation time is a horrible design choice for a hyrbid Terran-Martian cryptocurrancy.

...but excellent for Terran-Martian-Coalition secessionists!

Hmm I didn't see that bit, but I read the bit where it said the block chain would be transferred to mars with the first colonists - at that point if the the currency is effectively established on mars, any people who keep mining here would own a fork of the currency effectively, whilst only Martians would be involved in their own currency

That's the whole idea that they cannot sync. Otherwise Earth miners would take over the Mars Blockchain. They have a discussion on this on their Forum and FAQ. Someone suggested an "Interplanetary Coin" with several hour long confirmations that would work as an intermediary between the two networks. You change your BTC into MRS upon departure and when you arrive a few weeks later you have a few confirmations in the IPC. On Mars you then convert your IPC into MRS :-)

Interesting thought experiment. A Bitcoin on Mars installation was contemplated on reddit a while ago:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1rsbe9/to_the_peopl...

In all seriousness, they won't start a traditional banking system on Mars. But I could see the need for ownership and value distribution even in a small colony / if not base. Marscoin is a pretty cool thought experiment to stretch our imagination - and, as Dogecoin proves, can end up becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. I guess that's the hope.

Another fun angle is that if Marscoin/Bitcoin owners on Earth organize their capital and employ Mars colonists to work on projects, they can then pay them in Marscoin on Mars (as incentive). With decentralized corporations on the Bitcoin blockchain you could even see a body of people form a Thorium "corporation", purchase the technology in 2032, raise the funds on a global scale, then ship it to Mars and pay those colonists that can and want to work on it in Marscoin.

We're putting the cart before the horse here, no?

You mean because there should be a proving ground for this concept, like MoonCoin? ;)

It does seem like for this to make any sense as a local Martian currency you will already have to have quite a bit of surplus electricity production on Mars.

Well, Mooncoin makes less sense - the moon is to close to Earth, right? They can still use Dogecoin or Bitcoin on the Moon.

The time delay between the three satellites required for near-24/7 comm is between 3 and 22 minutes. However, MarsCoin is not specifically designed to be an interplanatary coin as of right now, although the issues you mentioned are being addressed for the future. The idea right now is to swap to Mars once the first 4 MarsOne colonists go so that they can eventually begin a digital currency system when bartering becomes inefficient. If you have questions about the coin, feel free to ask at www.marscoin.org.

Is Elon Musk associated with this, because it is quite bad form to put a celebrity on your front page without an endorsement from them.

Is there going to be any premining or are they intending to fund the entire mission of the initial 350,000 coins donated to MarsOne?

From the announcement thread, there was a 300,000 coin premine to be donated to MarsOne.

https://cryptocointalk.com/topic/3763-marscoin-mrs-informati...

What's that? Another litecone clone that is also somehow affiliated with mars one? Is amwaycoin next?

After reading the article, I feel spammed and marketed to.

Who knew that Marscoin was established in 2010?

as if the application fee for the mission to mars wasn't shady enough they created their own coin

Marscoin is not affiliated with MarsOne.

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