Mining on another planet. Possible?

[maz]

I love how folk are already fleshing out the technicalities of it. Gotta love the Bitcoin community...

[bumpk1nK]

You only encouraging someone to launch another alt coin, Marscoin

[og kush420]

when we are living on mars, what use will we have for bitcoins? though i like the idea of 'marscoin' /\

[Moshi]

Mining Bitcoin on Mars is totally infeasible, as almost all blocks mined on Mars will be orphaned by the time they reach Earth. I have talked about a solution before:

Each planet will have its own locally-mined cryptocurrency (Marscoin, etc), which each have a floating exchange rate to the original Earth-based Bitcoin. Marscoins and bitcoins can be directly traded for each other in order to settle interplanetary trade balances, the only issue is the speed-of-light delay for confirmations (which is unavoidable no matter what). Naturally Bitcoin can't be mined on Mars and Marscoin can't be mined on Earth, but that's not important.

Depends on Bitcoin hashing speed on Mars, if you have more Bitcoin hashing speed on Mars, Earth Bitcoin miners will not mine much 

True, whichever planet has the largest hashing power will eventually dominate. Regardless of who "wins", it's not good for Bitcoin as interplanetary currency. Only if the communication delay is negligible compared to the average block-time, will it interplanetary mining be feasible. A coin with a 24hr block-time can be mined on Earth and Mars just fine (assuming a network connection can be established of course).

Using bitcoins as interplanetary currency has been discussed here before, several times.

The only method that makes sense to me is for each planet to have their own version. Travelling from earth to Mars? Sign in to your local exchange before you go and trade some bitcoins for Marscoins. Mining bitcoins would only work for earthlings and mining Marscoins would only work for Martians.

This could get interesting when miners start hopping planets to take advantage of hashrate and price discrepencies.

[dree12]

By the time humans settle Mars, the block reward would have decreased significantly and will no longer be an important factor of mining. The solution, consequently, is simple: add a "second genesis block" to Bitcoin. These blocks are identical to regular blocks, except they employ a different hashing algorithm (to prevent Earth-miners from overtaking the Mars chain), and primarily deal with transactions broadcast to Mars. Interplanetary transactions will certainly take a while, as the Mars blocks will need to be broadcast to Earth, but are seamlessly integrated into the system. Transactions limited to a single planet work as expected.

Every time a new planet is settled, new genesis blocks can be created, one for each planet.

[Puppet]

Speed of light is the "fastest internet connection" you are going to get.

This always bothered me; assume a string of (non elastic) rope from earth to Mars. If someone pulls it on earth, wouldnt it be noted instantly on Mars?

[j68r]

Speed of light is the "fastest internet connection" you are going to get.

This always bothered me; assume a string of (non elastic) rope from earth to Mars. If someone pulls it on earth, wouldnt it be noted instantly on Mars?

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SpeedOfLight/FTL.html#4

[dree12]

Speed of light is the "fastest internet connection" you are going to get.

This always bothered me; assume a string of (non elastic) rope from earth to Mars. If someone pulls it on earth, wouldnt it be noted instantly on Mars?

Nope. Not even gravity will be noted instantly. If I disappeared Earth right this instant, Martians will only notice the change in gravity after the gravitational waves arrive, coincidentally at the speed of light.

[Vod]

I don't see humans populating mars at all...or by the time they do, bitcoin will be obsolete completely. 

I believe Mars will be settled in just under a decade.  So do hundreds of thousands of other people.  Bitcoin will still be relevant.
http://www.mars-one.com/en/

[BitcoinHeroes]

I don't see humans populating mars at all...or by the time they do, bitcoin will be obsolete completely. 

I believe Mars will be settled in just under a decade.  So do hundreds of thousands of other people.  Bitcoin will still be relevant.
http://www.mars-one.com/en/

Bitcoin might be the currency of the universe. Even alien use them

[Anon136]

quantum entanglement should allow for instantaneous communication over any distance.

It shouldn't and it doesn't.

Why shouldn't it? I guess you know everything their is to know about quantum mechanics,.... better let the rest of the world know so they can give up their research.

It shouldn't and it doesn't.
I cearainly don't know everything that is to know about quantum mechanics, but I've studied quantum mechanics and quantum field theory for more than 1.5 years now.

The problem is: you can enforce a particle that is in a superposition of 2 states to bee in one of the 2 states over great distances, but you don't get to choose which of the states it gets into.

When your communication partner measures the particles, he can't distinguish between particles that were forced into one state by his measurement, and particles that were in a pure state before. So no communication with quantum entanglement

Ok so maybe you didnt quite explain it properly, but according to the way you explained it you should still be able to communicate information. you would just measure it and when it is in a state than it is a 0 and when it is in superposition than it is a 1.

[Anon136]

Speed of light is the "fastest internet connection" you are going to get.

This always bothered me; assume a string of (non elastic) rope from earth to Mars. If someone pulls it on earth, wouldnt it be noted instantly on Mars?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do1lm9IevYE&t=5m27s

[Foxpup]

you would just measure it and when it is in a state than it is a 0 and when it is in superposition than it is a 1.

I am not even able to comprehend the degree of confusion that could provoke such a statement. To measure something means to determine its state. A particle or system of particles is always in some state or another after you measure it, by definition. Superposition can only exist as long as no measurement is performed.

[Anon136]

you would just measure it and when it is in a state than it is a 0 and when it is in superposition than it is a 1.

I am not even able to comprehend the degree of confusion that could provoke such a statement. To measure something means to determine its state. A particle or system of particles is always in some state or another after you measure it, by definition. Superposition can only exist as long as no measurement is performed.

that makes sense. i was just basing my conclusions on what you said, not on my intricate understanding of quantum physics.

so i have another question. if its imposable for entangled particles to transfer information, how could you ever design a test that would show whether two particles were entangled or not. wouldn't that test require that they transfer some sort of information between each other?

[Foxpup]

so i have another question. if its imposable for entangled particles to transfer information, how could you ever design a test that would show whether two particles were entangled or not. wouldn't that test require that they transfer some sort of information between each other?

You can't tell whether two particles were entangled without knowing the state of both of them. And you can't know the state of a distant particle without measuring it and transmitting the results of that measurement across that distance, which can't be done faster than the speed of light.

[Anon136]

so i have another question. if its imposable for entangled particles to transfer information, how could you ever design a test that would show whether two particles were entangled or not. wouldn't that test require that they transfer some sort of information between each other?

You can't tell whether two particles were entangled without knowing the state of both of them. And you can't know the state of a distant particle without measuring it and transmitting the results of that measurement across that distance, which can't be done faster than the speed of light.

k that also makes sense

[leannemckim46]

Its not like we ganna ran out of space. But anyway, its possible to mine on another planet since they send their robot there and is able to control from earth. So the connection is fast enough

[FTWbitcoinFTW]

I see bitcoin.
Bitcoin everywhere !!

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/10/nasa-internet-laser/

[zuerdemon]

Bitcoin might be the currency of the universe. Even alien use them

This could help Bitcoin if aliens wanted to trade, but only in exchane for Bitcoin 


But back to topic, Bitcoin does not need high speed Internet at all to work. With Electrum client you dont need to download the blockchain

[Ecurb123]

Maybe the best solution would be to have another coin just for Mars, then there could be a rather slow trade market.