<p>No, not necessarily, but mining in both locations is infeasible.</p>

<p>As Pieter explained in <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/56480/5406">Is it possible to use bitcoin as interplanetary money/store of value?</a>, exorbitant latency between miners would cause perpetual forks especially when the latency exceeds the targeted block interval. Only one of the two latency-separated mining clusters can be profitable: the stronger mining cluster will over-proportionally win cases of competing chain-tips, curbing the revenue of the weaker mining cluster due to mostly losing rewards to extinction of their blocks.</p>

<p>While mining is impractical, it would be possible to send and receive Bitcoin payments. Since communication between the planets could potentially be censored, a user located on Mars (i.e. the weaker mining cluster) must wait for an ample number of confirmations before relying on the payment's finality.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-06T16:01:37.827Z
2020-06-06T17:47:56.127Z
2020-06-06T17:47:56.127Z
Murch
<p>Yes, I'd say it's guaranteed to fork because a longer block time wouldn't mean higher latency is tolerated; it's assumed that all miners have infinitesimal-latency access to new blocks.</p>

<p>However, lots of blocks being orphaned doesn't mean a fork has to happen. I'm telling you a fork is guaranteed because of economical reasons: It's much healthier for every miner if there are two different networks but each having zero latency in itself. They can trade their coins when they need, which is much less destructive and variable than orphaning.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-06T13:06:25.280Z
2020-06-06T13:06:25.280Z
MCCCS
<p>Electromagnetic waves take between ~4 and ~24 minutes (mean: ~14 minutes) to travel a one-way trip between Earth and Mars. Suppose I set up a Bitcoin network on Mars. Is it guaranteed to eventually fork from the Bitcoin network on Earth?</p>

<p>I would expect the Bitcoin network on Mars to fork from the one on Earth, because Bitcoin's target inter-block time is 10 minutes, which is less than average time it takes for electromagnetic waves to travel between Earth and Mars. Am I correct? </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-06T12:57:01.713Z
In a long-term post hyper-bitcoinization world, I don't see why block times couldn't be increased to accommodate communication with Mars. On-chain TXs would be prohibitively expensive at the point, when Bitcoin is a global settlement layer, and most economic activity happens on other layers. Another option would be a mars side-chain, pegged to the Bitcoin chain. Synced on an hourly basis, instead of 10 minutes.
pox
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-06T15:36:06.827Z
Possible duplicate:  [Is it possible to use bitcoin as interplanetary money/store of value?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/56480/5406), closely related: [How do you create a planet-specific cryptocurrency that will ignore longer block chains from other planets?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/30001/5406),
Murch
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-06T15:42:37.487Z
Changing the block interval would require a hardfork. Hardforks are challenging because they require opt-in from the complete ecosystem.
Murch
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-05T10:00:09.027Z
FTR. Distance Mars<->Ears varies 54.6--401 milion kms => 3:02 --  22:18 light minutes
Grzegorz Wierzowiecki
<blockchain><mining-theory><latency><interplanetary>
Is a hypothetical Bitcoin network on Mars guaranteed to fork from the one on Earth?
Flux
# Is a hypothetical Bitcoin network on Mars guaranteed to fork from the one on Earth?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-06-06)

Electromagnetic waves take between ~4 and ~24 minutes (mean: ~14 minutes) to travel a one-way trip between Earth and Mars. Suppose I set up a Bitcoin network on Mars. Is it guaranteed to eventually fork from the Bitcoin network on Earth?

I would expect the Bitcoin network on Mars to fork from the one on Earth, because Bitcoin's target inter-block time is 10 minutes, which is less than average time it takes for electromagnetic waves to travel between Earth and Mars. Am I correct?

**Tags:** blockchain, mining-theory, latency, interplanetary

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: In a long-term post hyper-bitcoinization world, I don't see why block times couldn't be increased to accommodate communication with Mars. On-chain TXs would be prohibitively expensive at the point, when Bitcoin is a global settlement layer, and most economic activity happens on other layers. Another option would be a mars side-chain, pegged to the Bitcoin chain. Synced on an hourly basis, instead of 10 minutes.  
> **username_2**: Possible duplicate:  [Is it possible to use bitcoin as interplanetary money/store of value?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/56480/5406), closely related: [How do you create a planet-specific cryptocurrency that will ignore longer block chains from other planets?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/30001/5406),  
> **username_2**: Changing the block interval would require a hardfork. Hardforks are challenging because they require opt-in from the complete ecosystem.  
> **username_3**: FTR. Distance Mars<->Ears varies 54.6--401 milion kms => 3:02 --  22:18 light minutes  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2020-06-06. Score: 2

No, not necessarily, but mining in both locations is infeasible.

As Pieter explained in [Is it possible to use bitcoin as interplanetary money/store of value?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/56480/5406), exorbitant latency between miners would cause perpetual forks especially when the latency exceeds the targeted block interval. Only one of the two latency-separated mining clusters can be profitable: the stronger mining cluster will over-proportionally win cases of competing chain-tips, curbing the revenue of the weaker mining cluster due to mostly losing rewards to extinction of their blocks.

While mining is impractical, it would be possible to send and receive Bitcoin payments. Since communication between the planets could potentially be censored, a user located on Mars (i.e. the weaker mining cluster) must wait for an ample number of confirmations before relying on the payment's finality.


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### Answer by username_4 on 2020-06-06. Score: 1

Yes, I'd say it's guaranteed to fork because a longer block time wouldn't mean higher latency is tolerated; it's assumed that all miners have infinitesimal-latency access to new blocks.

However, lots of blocks being orphaned doesn't mean a fork has to happen. I'm telling you a fork is guaranteed because of economical reasons: It's much healthier for every miner if there are two different networks but each having zero latency in itself. They can trade their coins when they need, which is much less destructive and variable than orphaning.


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