About

Marscoin: a cryptocurrency and public blockchain for planet Mars.

What is Marscoin?

Marscoin is a cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoin or Litecoin and consists of a decentralized public blockchain.

The Marscoin project's goal is to help with the bootstrapping of an economic system on Mars and to experiment and supply tools for early Martian settlers.

In addition, Marscoin allows space enthusiasts to contribute and shape the future economic Martian blockchain here and now: To that purpose the initial Marscoin miners donated 1 million Marscoin to The Mars Society, the largest international space advocacy group.

Marscoin supporters intend to move the blockchain to Mars itself as early as possible and install nodes on Mars, making Marscoin the foundational blockchain on the Red Planet. Additionally, Marscoin developers and community are experimenting with a set of tools that might allow early Martian settlers more easily to form proposals, conduct fair and direct voting, securely log experimental data and transparently log inventory.

An entire ecosystem ("Mars-chain")of projects is developing around these concepts including further areas that take advantage of the power of public blockchains. From registration of property and ownership, contactless payment systems, public terminals - only space is the limit.

Motivation

A most detailed discussion of the motivation and background that led to the development of Marscoin is found in the Marscoin Whitepaper.

In short, while not every theme might need its own token or blockchain, the light-speed delay that any communication between Earth and Mars experiences necessitates a separate blockchain for the planet Mars: Marscoin.

The delay between data packages makes syncing (in real-time) with the Bitcoin network impossible. A local public blockchain like Marscoin takes on the reserve currency and real-time timestamping capabilities of Bitcoin on Earth for Mars.

It allows other projects built to interact with the Marscoin blockchain to utilize the power of trustless ledger technology: Martians will be able to vote directly and transparently, for instance, on any aspect of their society utilizing cryptography and an environment that encourages rather than restricts technological innovation.