Just recently, a set of ambitious researchers say it would take just 12 to 15 minutes to send a Bitcoin payment from Earth to Mars using the lighting network.
It's indeed a fascinating prospect because no bank wire, Fiat currency, or anything humans use for money has a real technical plan to work that far from home.
Now looking at the planets Earth and Mars, although they are next each other in the solar system, that are still separated by over millions of kilometers, as such communication from Earth to Mars would often the characterized by a lot of delays.
Where this is going is that although these delays can't be fully eliminated, considering even the timeline the researchers gave, however such delays and impossibilities can be hugely reduced when Bitcoin is used.
Think of payments across both planets being possible and fast.
Something worth mentioning is that there doesn't need to be a synchronized network between Earth and Mars for Bitcoin to work.
With such a prospect, are we seeing the first interplanetary money?
Honestly this an interesting idea, bitcoin could become a good option for interplanetary money because it does not depend on any physical location or bank. But what I see as the main challenge here is the slow communication between earth and mars.
Lightning could make payments more faster, but the bitcoin network can not make the distance between the two planets disappear with the fact that some people are already thinking about how bitcoin can work between them shows that technology can be flexible and who even knows maybe one day in the future sending bitcoin to mars will become a normal thing as sending bitcoin to another person in another country.
