Elon Musk considers using Bitcoin on Mars

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Despite initially opposing the idea of using Bitcoin as currency on Mars, Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk may have addressed the issue.

In an X Space article titled “ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) Approved” by ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood, Musk initially rejected the use of Bitcoin as currency on Mars because of the time it would take to settle transactions.

“It would make sense to use some kind of cryptocurrency on Mars; you can’t use Bitcoin because the reconciliation process would be too long.”

Musk has been working to colonize Mars by 2050, a vision in which humans must evolve into a multi-planetary species to survive.

Elon answers how much money he would spend on Mars: pic.twitter.com/VJQeIM0qqJ

— Sam Callah (@samcallah) January 11, 2024

However, after thinking about it carefully, Musk concluded that this is actually possible since Earth is only 8 light minutes away from the sun and Mars is about 12 light minutes away – although there will still be obstacles.

“You might be able to use Bitcoin to some extent, but it would be difficult to use it on Mars,” he said, adding that a localized network may be needed on Earth:

“Mars is about twenty light minutes away. So it’s not easy, there must be something localized on Mars.”

Subsequently, Musk agreed with Bitcoin Core developer Matt Corallo that the problem of slow Bitcoin transaction speeds could be solved through a localized Lightning Network.

Bitcoin currently takes up to an hour to secure transactions as the blockchain assembles them into 10-minute blocks, requiring six block confirmations before a transaction is completed.

However, Blockstream CEO Adam Back is more optimistic about the idea, regardless of whether Bitcoin has a native Lightning Network in its current form.he was reply X Space theme:

“12-22 minutes of light is not a problem for a 10-minute block.”

In April 2023, data from Glassnode showed that the Bitcoin Lightning Network was significantly cheaper than other traditional payments.

According to Glassnode, the cost of sending value over the Lightning Network is 0.0029%, which is about 1,000 times cheaper than payment processors Mastercard or Visa.

Meanwhile, there is speculation about whether Musk will implement the option to use cryptocurrencies on the X, as he plans to turn it into an “everything app.”

As reported in January 2023, two people familiar with Plan X said the payments feature could support cryptocurrencies if given the opportunity.

On August 5, 2023, Musk replied to a user on X, saying that he would “never” launch a separate cryptocurrency token for the platform.