user56641: Lets say I put my wallet's private key on a rocket and fire it towards mars.  In 50 years time I travel to mars for a cheap vacation and find my private key.  Would I then have full access to my wallet, including all the transactions over the past 50 years and the current balance (from when I landed on mars in person) etc?
In other words, to fully backup my wallet and be able to restore it with full control, do I only need to backup my private key?

user52820: That's exactly how private key works. All you need to have is a private key to access your wallet. And this is the reason it is not a good idea to fire your private key to mars, if someone get there before you, they will steal all your coins.

56641: <p>Lets say I put my wallet's private key on a rocket and fire it towards mars.  In 50 years time I travel to mars for a cheap vacation and find my private key.  Would I then have full access to my wallet, including all the transactions over the past 50 years and the current balance (from when I landed on mars in person) etc?</p>

<p>In other words, to fully backup my wallet and be able to restore it with full control, do I only need to backup my private key?</p>
 52820: <p>That's exactly how private key works. All you need to have is a private key to access your wallet. And this is the reason it is not a good idea to fire your private key to mars, if someone get there before you, they will steal all your coins.</p>
