Engineers have devised a way to send bitcoin to Mars.

Researchers Jose Puente and Carlos Puente published a white paper on the concept of Proof-of-Transit Timestamping (PoTT). It allows the first cryptocurrency to be sent from Earth to Mars in three minutes.

According to the plan, when making an interplanetary transaction, the operation will go through ground antennas, satellites, and lunar relays, receiving time stamps at each stage.

"Imagine it's the year 2050, and you are sending money from Earth to a friend on Mars to help him pay his rent. Due to the vast distance between the planets, the message must pass through several stations. At each station, it will receive timestamps for arrival and departure — just like in a passport when crossing a border. When the message reaches Mars, all these timestamps will allow for precise tracking of the path and time of movement," explained Jose Puente.

PoTT functions as a confirmation layer for transactions in digital gold networks and the Lightning Network, utilizing optical communication channels developed by NASA and Elon Musk's Starlink. According to the developers, the concept is ready for implementation.

"As soon as stable communication is established between Earth and Mars, PoTT will be able to operate on top of it, making Bitcoin the first interplanetary currency," the researcher emphasized.

He added that the creators of the project can model a demo test, simulating the characteristic delays of Martian communication. With full operation, translations via the Lightning Network could reach Mars in three minutes, and in the worst case — up to 22 minutes.

The authors of the concept proposed to solve the problem of two-week eclipse periods using orbital satellite relays.
Bitcoin has already been sent to space

In December 2018, the blockchain company Blockstream launched a satellite network that enabled Bitcoin transactions to be conducted through space.
In 2020, the startup Spacechain transferred digital gold directly from the International Space Station.

In July of that same year, the famous Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield received his first bitcoins from a satellite that was orbiting 35,000 km from Earth. As NASA astronaut Chris Hadfield noted, blockchain could play a certain role in the exploration of the Solar System.

For crypto transfers on Mars, there must be a person or artificial intelligence present, which has not yet happened. To date, the Red Planet has only been explored by landing modules, orbital spacecraft, and rovers from NASA and other space agencies.

In August of this year, Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, began accepting digital assets — bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, USDT, and USDC. However, the company's ships have only crossed the Kármán line, located about 100 km from Earth.

In January of last year, billionaire Elon Musk allowed the use of cryptocurrency as a currency on Mars.