Neuromorphic computing breakthough enables blockchains on Mars

There aren’t any ATMs on Mars. In fact, the red planet currently has no infrastructure in place to support financial transactions at all – how strange! And this therefore poses a significant challenge for future colonists who want to order pizza using Bitcoin or trade apes with fellow Non-Fungible Token (NFT) enthusiasts back here on Earth. But now the solution to this problem you never knew you had may have arrived in the form of recent research in the field of neuromorphic computing.

Traditional extraterrestrial communication is a complex, energy-intensive process that incurs minutes-long delays under the best of circumstances. As future colonists travel to Mars, their ship’s computers will quickly lose the ability to communicate with Earthbound computers and servers in real-time. And, once the colonists reach Mars, their communication systems will experience delays of up to approximately 22 minutes, depending on the planet’s position relative to Earth at the time, in both sending and receiving data.

While 44 minutes might not sound like that big of a deal, there are also the issues of signal degradation, radiation interference, and data corruption to deal with.

Back on Earth, the technology world runs on cloud computing. Nearly every networked machine, from the billions of iPhones in use to the most powerful supercomputers, utilizes some form of remote data processing or compute.

Neuromorphic computers meanwhile are designed to solve data-intensive problems using real-time pattern recognition. Essentially, they’re built to mimic the human brain. They use a system of artificial neurons that process data in memory rather than with a traditional CPU, making them extremely low-latency devices.

This makes neuromorphic computer chips a perfect fit for situations where real-time data analysis has to happen at the edge - meaning, using the hardware on the device itself - in places such as deep-sea research facilities, outer space, and other planets.

Unfortunately, one of the most promising types of neuromorphic computer chips, called self-compliant chips, use materials that can be unpredictable from one device to the next. Despite their great promise, this flaw meant that sometimes these particular chips would dump their data unpredictably, and now a team of researchers in South Korea have had a breakthrough in the development of these chips and, according to their research, overcome this limitation.

With further development, their neuromorphic computing chip architecture could lay the foundations for a revolution in edge computing.

Conducting a blockchain transaction on Earth is a relatively simple process for end-users, but the technology underpinning it, decentralized computing, requires multiple nodes working in concert. Most modern computers are capable of serving as a node and, in some cases, cryptocurrencies can still be mined using personal computers.

However, if all the remote infrastructure is stripped away - including Earthbound energy sources - it would quickly become impossible to mine cryptocurrency or transact on the blockchain. Recreating this infrastructure on Mars, as it exists on Earth in 2024, could potentially take decades or longer.

According to Elon Musk, humans will arrive on Mars long before that period. And, while trading cryptocurrency might not be their first priority, they’ll eventually need to engage in trusted transactions with Earth.

Neuromorphic computers are purpose-built for such situations. Working in parallel with traditional computers, they could enable Martian colonists to conduct edge processing that would normally require real-time connectivity to remote resources and advanced infrastructure.

Theoretically, simple computing devices with self-compliant neuromorphic processing chips could provide real-time automation and data processing for a scalable blockchain network on Mars. This would make it possible for colonists to bring their Earth-based blockchains with them.

Without neuromorphic edge computing, blockchain transactions would have to be initiated on Mars, processed on Earth, sent back to Mars for ledger confirmation, and then sent back to Earth for reconfirmation. This means each individual blockchain transaction could take days to propagate between nodes – which is far too long to wait to pay for your pizza.

Neuromorphic computers won’t solve the transmission delay. Colonists would still be forced to wait up to 44 minutes for transmissions between Mars and Earth until communications technology improves – which is already under way. But, with neuromorphic computer chips handling the heavy lifting, those transactions could happen in bursts containing multiple transactions, and it would then be feasible to achieve a 1:1 hourly update and pricing alignment between the interplanetary cryptocurrency markets.