Mining on another planet. Possible?

[letcore]

As far as I understand you could spend a Bitcoin on Mars. The light travel time means it could take up to 30 minutes to get the first confirmation, so that's not a massive problem.

But what about having miners on Mars, perhaps to speed up confirmation times for colonists.

How would the protocol fair when say a block is found on Mars and it could take nearly half an hour for it to arrive on earth?

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[gollum]

How would the protocol fair when say a block is found on Mars and it could take nearly half an hour for it to arrive on earth?

The protocol must be adjusted for the lag in time between nodes at planet A and B so they can have a chance to sync with each other.
each block will need to be at least lag_time * 2 = 1 hour for all nodes to accept the blockchain

[b!z]

If we can get a fast enough connection between another planet and Earth, it could be possible.

[waltermot321]

As far as I understand you could spend a Bitcoin on Mars. The light travel time means it could take up to 30 minutes to get the first confirmation, so that's not a massive problem.

But what about having miners on Mars, perhaps to speed up confirmation times for colonists.

How would the protocol fair when say a block is found on Mars and it could take nearly half an hour for it to arrive on earth?

Last I check there is no internet connection in Mars

[GigaWave]

If we can get a fast enough connection between another planet and Earth, it could be possible.

Speed of light is the "fastest internet connection" you are going to get. Which leaves you with a transmit time of between 3 and 22 minutes, depending on the orbit.

[Foxpup]

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.

An interplanetary coin with a block target of several Earth days (to allow interplanetary mining) is also a possibility for interplanetary trade or as a solar-system-wide reserve currency, but probably not necessary as long as the planetary coins can be freely traded, in which case it's likely that Bitcoin will become the solar-system-wide reserve currency (making all previous price predictions seem hopelessly pessimistic).

[liquiddrool]

As far as I understand you could spend a Bitcoin on Mars. The light travel time means it could take up to 30 minutes to get the first confirmation, so that's not a massive problem.

But what about having miners on Mars, perhaps to speed up confirmation times for colonists.

How would the protocol fair when say a block is found on Mars and it could take nearly half an hour for it to arrive on earth?

Last I check there is no internet connection in Mars

Check again:

"NASA Shoots Lasers at the Moon to Create Insanely Fast Internet"

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

[frankenmint]

As far as I understand you could spend a Bitcoin on Mars. The light travel time means it could take up to 30 minutes to get the first confirmation, so that's not a massive problem.

But what about having miners on Mars, perhaps to speed up confirmation times for colonists.

How would the protocol fair when say a block is found on Mars and it could take nearly half an hour for it to arrive on earth?

Last I check there is no internet connection in Mars

Check again:

"NASA Shoots Lasers at the Moon to Create Insanely Fast Internet"

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

 laser beam? you mean line of sight.....yea right thats totally economical to limit internet to a 20 minute window each day.
back to reality - don't you think btc will be antiquated?  I don't see humans populating mars at all...or by the time they do, bitcoin will be obsolete completely.  Just cause its a thought doesn't mean it makes any sort of good sense. Mars makes sense like living on the moon does....it doesn't.

[Radelderth]

You will be more profitable to do real mining on mars.

[kuriboh]

Quick! somebody needs to work on this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansible

[Anon136]

quantum entanglement should allow for instantaneous communication over any distance.

[Radelderth]

Quick! somebody needs to work on this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansible

I don't think this would work, just too good to be true...

[Foxpup]

quantum entanglement should allow for instantaneous communication over any distance.

It shouldn't and it doesn't.

[Operatr]

Mining profitability is bad enough before factoring in billion dollar space missions 

[xephireusMMX]

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 

[Rannasha]

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).

[GigaWave]

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.

[blub]

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

[Gabi]

quantum entanglement should allow for instantaneous communication over any distance.

No. Please stop spreading false informations.

[edd]

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.