With Bitcoin's 10 minute blocks, I don't think that the bitcoin network will extend too far beyond earth orbit. While the moon is only ~2 light-seconds away, the outer planets are several light hours away. Transactions could be received but heavily delayed. No node out there could stay in sync. Bitcoin mining could not happen that far out.
If/when we get that far, bitcoin will likely stay earth-centric. Maybe there are other block chains that spin up on each planet that mimics the properties of bitcoin (or are exact copies).
Planetary-specific blockchains are the most probable outcome, that's for sure. Still, if you want inter-planetary trade with a bitcoin-like unit of account, there's going to be a new sort of inter-planetary sync. That's why I think that bitcoin will evolve to have two settlement layers within L1: L1S settlement, at solar-system level, and L2S settlement, at planet-specific level.
reply