The Mars Society is going to be putting out its call for presentations for its annual conference in the near future and one thing I thought I might do for a topic is how cryptocurrencies could fit into an interplanetary economy. I know the speed of light will likely be a concern for confirming transactions, but that's about the only weakness I can think of. What do you guys think?
if you put 20 people in a room for the rest of their lives. where all the food is in one centralised store. all tastes the same, is all equally rationed out and all the people have designated jobs. there is no need for currency. because everyone is on the same level. all the food is rationed out equally. their shifts are scheduled equally.
currency is used more for people that move around and do different jobs at different times where currency can be used to tempt people to work hard jobs or unsocial hours. and where food is not centrally located but allowing for variety and choice of supplier and quality.
also on mars there is no need for a distributed ledger. because they are all stuck in the same room. its easy enough to slap someone with a piece of mars rock should they steal rations.
for currency to be worthy on mars. there would need to be different grades of food.
EG instead of 10,000 packets of bland dried protein bars. there would be 5,000 bland protein bars and 5,000 flavoured protein bars.
plus lots of other things about work needed to be completed and hours doing tasks to be rewarded X currency which rewards them the possibility of X food or time off.
but equal rationed, low variety food and scheduled work wont make a currency viable
