Elon Musk has declared that Mars' economy would be cryptocurrency-based - if and when it comes round to it, of course.
The SpaceX and Tesla CEO has been sharing various details about his plans to colonise Mars, with hopes that his ambitious Starship rocket will one day be able to transport people there to start new life by 2050.
Now it seems he's putting some thought into the economy, having hinted on Twitter that he may be opting for crytocurrency.
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It began when AI researcher and podcast host Lex Friedman tweeted: "Mars economy will run on crypto."
Another account called Elon's World then chimed in, suggesting: "Marscoin."
It was at this point that Musk stepped forward in agreement, simply writing: "Yes."
It's not clear whether Musk was agreeing to Marscoin or the cryptocurency idea in general, but either way, things are looking digital for the Red Planet.
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Others said he should go for Dogecoin - the price of which surged by more than a third after Musk changed his Twitter bio to 'Former CEO of Dogegoin', tweeting: "One word: Doge."
Thankfully, if he's hoping to get people up there by 2050, Musk should have a few years yet to mull it all over.
He's also thinking about where people would live, saying earlier this year that humans could reside in glass domes before eventually terraforming.
He took to Twitter to share his vision of the future and said he is certain we will secure a base on the planet fairly soon.
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Responding to a question about what life would look like, Musk wrote: "Life in glass domes at first. Eventually, terraformed to support life, like Earth."
Expanding on the point, he added: "Terraforming will be too slow to be relevant in our lifetime. However, we can establish a human base their in our lifetime.
"At least a future spacefaring civilisation - discovering our ruins - will be impressed humans got that far."
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Speaking in September during a virtual 'Humans to Mars' conference, the 49-year-old billionaire promised that a Martian settlement would be 'glorious' but admitted that it's not without its risks.
He said: "Getting to Mars, I think, is not the fundamental issue.
"The fundamental issue is building a base, building a city on Mars that is self-sustaining.
"We're going to build a propellant plant, an initial Mars base - Mars Base Alpha - and then get it to the point where it's self-sustaining.
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"I want to emphasise that this is a very hard and dangerous, difficult thing, not for the faint of heart. Good chance you'll die, it's going to be tough going, but it will be pretty glorious if it works out."
Featured Image Credit: PA
Topics: elon musk, World News, News, mars
