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Author: Ciaran Lyons, Cointelegraph; Compiled by: Songxue, Bitchain Vision
While Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk was initially hesitant about the idea of using Bitcoin as a currency on Mars, he may have just changed his attitude on the issue.
In X Spaces entitled “ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) approved” by ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood, Musk initially refused to use Bitcoin as a Martian currency because it took a lot of time to settle transactions.
“It makes sense to use some kind of cryptocurrency on Mars, but you can’t use Bitcoin because the settlement time is too long.”
Musk, who has been working to establish colonies on Mars by 2050, believes that humans must evolve into multiplanetary species to survive.
However, after his own verbal brainstorming, Musk concluded that considering that Earth is only 8 light minutes from the Sun and Mars is about 12 light minutes from the Sun, this may actually be feasible—although it will still faceobstacle.
“Maybe you can use Bitcoin to some extent, but it’s hard to use it heavily on Mars,” he said, adding that a localized network might be needed on Earth:
“Mars is about twenty minutes away from us. So, it’s not easy, there has to be something localized on Mars.”
After that,Musk agrees with Bitcoin core developer Matt Corallo, who believes that the problem of slow Bitcoin transactions can be solved through the localized Lightning Network.
Bitcoin currently takes up to an hour to ensure transactions are secure, as its blockchain assembles transactions into 10-minute blocks, with six blocks required to confirm before the transaction is finalized.
However, whether there is a localized Lightning Network in Bitcoin’s current form, Blockstream CEO Adam Back is more optimistic about the idea.He replied in a Spaces post: “12-22 light minutes are no problem with a 10-minute block.”
In April 2023, Glassnode data showed that the cost of using the Bitcoin Lightning Network was significantly lower than other traditional payment methods.
According to Glassnode, the cost of sending value through the Lightning network is 0.0029%, about 1,000 times cheaper than a Mastercard or Visa payment processor.
Meanwhile, there are speculations about whether Musk will use cryptocurrency on X as he plans to turn it into “everything app.”
According to a January 2023 report, two people familiar with Project X said that the payment feature could accommodate cryptocurrencies if there is a chance.
On August 5, Musk responded to a user on X that he would “never” launch crypto tokens on X.
