The best way to find out is to actually experience it yourself! If you are new to cryptocurrencies, checkout coinbase.com or some other service that allows you to buy Bitcoin. Transfer some of them to your mobile phone or buy things online. You will see quickly how efficient, fast and secure cryptocurrencies are. Marscoin is no different. Checkout http://marscoin.org/exchanges/ where you can buy a few Marscoin to learn how it works. In approximately 2036 on Mars, the early settlers just need to run a small program on one of their computers (a so called “node”) that will the Marscoin network on Mars to be immediately functional. Now, anyone that runs his own private password protected copy of a Marscoin wallet on Mars can participate in transactions between individuals or groups of individuals.

All your existing addresses and value stored will continue on Mars. The fact that there is only a limited amount of time before the Marscoin blockchain gets transfered will create a time-scarcity that should help fund the project and reward those first investors and visionaries who support the project and thus help fund a new branch of human civilization. For those who do not want their value to stay on Mars and increase over time, they can transfer their Marscoins at any time into any other cryptocurrency or fiat at one of the big exchanges.

That is a really good point. It is pretty clear that in the very beginning, between the first few settlers we will see barter and voluntary sharing. However, soon thereafter, some form of trade will have to take place. Both the Mars Society and SpaceX are planning on sending a constant stream of settlers to Mars, so the size of the settlement(s) would grow continuously. Here is a great quote that makes a case for why trade will spring up quite naturally and quickly: “Love—more generally, the sharing of a common end—works well, but only for a limited range of problems. It is difficult to know very many people well enough to love them. Love can provide cooperation on complicated things among very small groups of people, such as families. It also works among large numbers of people for very simple ends—ends so simple that many different people can completely agree on them. But for a complicated end involving a large number of people—producing this book, for instance—love will not work. I cannot expect all the people whose cooperation I need—typesetters, editors, bookstore owners, loggers, pulpmill workers, and a thousand more—to know and love me well enough to want to publish this book for my sake…Nor can I expect them all to be people who want to read the book and who therefore are willing to help produce it. I fall back on the second method: trade. I contribute the time and effort to produce the manuscript. I get, in exchange … a satisfying boost to my ego, and a little money. The people who want to read the book get the book. In exchange, they give money. The publishing firm and its employees, the editors, give the time, effort, and skill necessary to coordinate the rest of us; they get money and reputation. Loggers, printers, and the like give their effort and skill and get money in return. Thousands of people, perhaps millions, cooperate in a single task, each seeking his own ends. So under private property the first method, sharing/barter, is used where it is workable. Where it is not, trade is used instead.” Source: http://www.daviddfriedman.com/The_Machinery_of_Freedom_.pdf

Who is not?!? And yes, we bought a lot of those Boring Company caps… Elon, if you read this, thanks for all your efforts for getting us to Mars. Forever grateful.