Billionaire Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, plans to send humans to Mars in 2024 with the goal of building a self-sustaining city there as soon as possible. To make that city work, it needs its own economy, and Musk says it will run on cryptocurrency.
Responding to a tweet from AI researcher Lex Fridman, Musk agreed that “the economy on Mars will be run on cryptocurrency.” He even mentioned that the currency could be Dogecoin or a new crypto called Marcoin.
Marcoin was created in 2014 and saw a brief spike during the 2017 crypto boom but has since almost disappeared. According to CoinMarketCap, its total market value is now under $100,000.
Dogecoin might be a better fit since it’s more well-known than Marcoin and shares decentralized features similar to Bitcoin.
Last week, Dogecoin’s price jumped by a third after Musk changed his Twitter bio to “Former CEO of Dogecoin” and tweeted, “One word: Doge.”
A few months ago, Musk advised actress Maisie Williams not to invest in Bitcoin, calling it a “devil’s currency.” But just days ago, he asked crypto figure Michael Saylor about the feasibility of using Bitcoin for large transactions.
Beyond the economy, Musk stirred controversy by saying international laws won’t apply on Mars. Instead, there will be a set of “self-governance rules.”
According to Musk, Mars settlers will live in glass-enclosed apartments like these
SpaceX’s Starlink internet service terms state that any future Mars colony will “recognize Mars as a free planet” and add that “No Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over activities on Mars.”
The SpaceX founder frequently talks about his ambition to reach Mars within his lifetime and has pushed his team to speed up development of the new Starship rocket, which will carry people to Mars.
The Starship prototype completed a 12.5 km high-altitude test flight earlier this month. Musk plans to build a fleet of about 1,000 spacecraft, each capable of carrying around 100 people.
Source: Independent
