Researchers have designed a new internet protocol specifically for a 10-node colony network spanning Earth, the Moon, and Mars.
April 1, 2026
Original Paper
Legible Consensus: Topology-Aware Quorum Geometry for Asymmetric Networks
arXiv · 2603.28788
AI-generated illustration
The Takeaway
Because the speed of light is too slow for normal computer communication across the solar system, standard internet protocols fail at planetary distances. This new 'Legible Consensus' system uses a specialized geometry to keep data synced across the solar system, even during 'conjunction blackouts' when Mars is hidden behind the Sun.
From the abstract
Quorum design over asymmetric topologies conflates two independent concerns: inter-tier obligation (which tiers must participate for cross-tier safety) and intra-tier replication (how each tier survives local failures). Flat quorums treat all nodes as interchangeable; when consensus fails, the structure does not reveal whether a tier was unreachable or a tier lost too many replicas. We show that mapping a crumbling-wall quorum construction to a physically tiered network separates these concerns