Reference
Marscoin Glossary
In briefThe words you meet on this site and in the Academy, each in a sentence or two, with a link to the article that explains it fully. Marscoin is a Scrypt proof-of-work cryptocurrency that keeps Mars time: one block every 123 seconds, two Mars minutes.
- Sol
- A day on Mars, measured from one solar noon to the next: on average 24 hours, 39 minutes and 35 seconds of Earth time. Block time: the Mars minute →
- Mars minute
- One sixtieth of a Mars hour, about 61.65 Earth seconds. Marscoin’s 123-second block target is two Mars minutes. Block time: the Mars minute →
- Block time
- The average time between blocks. Marscoin targets 123 seconds, about 702 blocks per Earth day. Block time: the Mars minute →
- Proof of work
- Securing a blockchain by having miners spend computing power to find each new block. Marscoin is a proof-of-work chain. Getting started with mining →
- Scrypt
- The memory-hard hashing algorithm Marscoin is mined with, as Litecoin and Dogecoin are. The Academy compares it with RandomX, a CPU-mining alternative proposed for Marscoin. Scrypt vs RandomX →
- Merged mining (AuxPoW)
- Mining Marscoin with the same work as another Scrypt chain, so miners earn MARS at no extra cost. Active on Marscoin since block 3,145,555. Merged mining and AuxPoW →
- ASERT
- Absolutely Scheduled Exponentially Rising Targets: the difficulty adjustment Marscoin adopted in 2024, which re-targets every block toward the 123-second schedule. The ASERT difficulty algorithm →
- Halving
- The block reward halves every 395,699 blocks. It started at 50 MARS per block, which caps the supply at 39,569,900 MARS. Chain specifications →
- Atomic swap
- A trade between two blockchains, such as Bitcoin for MARS, that completes on both sides or not at all, with no exchange in the middle. Built into the Electrum-Mars wallet. Atomic swaps →
- HTLC
- Hash time-locked contract: the lock that makes atomic swaps safe. Funds are released with a secret before a deadline, or return to the sender after it. Hash time-locked contracts →
- IPAS
- InterPlanetary Atomic Swaps: atomic swaps stretched across the Earth–Mars communication delay. InterPlanetary Atomic Swaps →
- Electrum-Mars
- Marscoin’s lightweight desktop wallet, with hardware-wallet support and a built-in atomic swap tab. Wallet comparison →
- Full node
- A computer running the full Marscoin Core software, which checks and relays every block and transaction. Run a node →
- Martian Republic
- Marscoin’s governance platform and app: a citizen registry, congressional voting, a research logbook and a wallet, built on the Marscoin blockchain. The Martian Republic →
- Citizen registry
- The Martian Republic’s register of citizens, using peer attestation as proof of humanity. The citizen registry →
- Congressional voting
- Direct voting by registered citizens on proposals, Yes, No or Abstain, with CoinShuffle keeping ballots private. Congressional voting →
- CoinShuffle
- A mixing protocol the Martian Republic uses so that a ballot can be counted without being traced to the voter. Congressional voting →
- SPHINCS+
- A hash-based post-quantum signature scheme that Marscoin has proposed to replace ECDSA. The quantum upgrade proposal →
- The Seed
- A bootable disk image holding the complete Martian Republic infrastructure: blockchain, governance, identity, wallets and IPFS. The Seed →
Every chain parameter is listed, with its source in the code, on the specifications page. The sites that make up the Marscoin network are on related websites.
