And two more!
I'm talking about the Bitcoin obituaries. I had written an article in early 2023 listing them and then explaining why Bitcoin continued to survive, unlike the 90% of cryptocurrencies that have died since 2014.
The total has now reached 471. Amazingly, Bitcoin naysayers keep making these obituaries without even realizing that Bitcoin is here to stay and that all of these obituaries are aging poorly.
Just like me, you frequently hear the same (false) criticisms come up again and again: “Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme,” “Bitcoin is a disaster for the environment,” “Bitcoin is only used for illegal activities,” ...
You may think I'm repeating myself, but it's mainly because the opponents of Bitcoin are constantly repeating themselves that I'm forced to repeat the same thing often for newcomers to the Bitcoin world. Because even if some people have already understood that the powerful people at the head of the current system are pushing their narrative to defend the current system at all costs, others still have questions and are barely opening their eyes to the flaws of the current system.
Finding the right balance to help everyone is not always easy. But I do my best.
Today, for a change, I'm going to look at an attack on Bitcoin that I've seen pop up again recently, and that is more rarely used by Bitcoin opponents. These opponents say that to completely block the Bitcoin system, governments would only have to shut down the Internet...
According to these Bitcoin opponents, without the Internet, the network could not survive.
The more general question this raises is: how could Bitcoin survive if the Internet were to be cut off completely?
Before I dig into this, let me say that this idea seems rather far-fetched. Indeed, these opponents of Bitcoin should understand that it is not possible to turn off the Internet like you turn off a light in a room, or an isolated computer server. For the Internet to be completely out of use, it would take concerted action by all countries worldwide.
Something unthinkable when we see that the G20 countries are already having incredible difficulty agreeing on the minimum taxation of multinationals' profits. There would always be a country that would see an opportunity and would try to take advantage of it. The famous game theory would come back to remind Bitcoin's opponents.
On the other hand, the current monetary and financial system would collapse without the Internet. Beyond the current system, a whole bunch of other systems crucial to the proper functioning of our society would collapse. It would be a generalized panic. To be fair, those who have their wealth stored in Bitcoin would be at an advantage in such a scenario since they could protect the fruits of their labor.
Those who depend exclusively on the current system would be left without resources, as they would be unable to withdraw the fruits of their labor from the banks. Yes, without access to the bank's centralized servers, you won't be able to withdraw your money. So, I would rather say that a generalized cut of the Internet would penalize the current system above all.
Without global Internet for one reason or another, whether it's a voluntary government shutdown or a widespread power outage due to a disaster, you may also feel that your last concern would be to try to make transactions on the Bitcoin network.
On the contrary, since your wealth would be safe within the Bitcoin network, you would have the assurance that you could access it again sooner or later. With the current system, you might suspect that your money would be requisitioned to help rebuild the country's infrastructure if the disaster that caused the total shutdown was, for example, a nuclear holocaust.
So back to Bitcoin.
You have your Bitcoin wealth with you. You know your seed phrase. Your wealth is safe and you can access it through the contents of your brain. Sooner or later, you'd like to make a transaction. But since the Internet is still not available, you will look for other solutions.
The real question is what happens when you make a transaction on the Bitcoin network. In reality, you only need to send data to nodes on the network. It's all about the data here.
A few years ago, Blockstream has started to develop a solution that allows you to run your node on the Bitcoin network without needing the Internet on Earth since it is connected to the network via a satellite link. Quite advantageous in such a situation.
You can also imagine solutions to transfer data by SMS and use Bitcoin in this way. This is what is being developed in Africa, where the Internet penetration rate is not always high enough to allow people to benefit from Bitcoin.
I told you about the Manchakura project in mid-2022. This project is an innovation that allows Bitcoin to be sent and received via the GSM network in the following African countries:
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Ghana
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Kenya
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Malawi
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Namibia
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Nigeria
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South Africa
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Uganda
Of course, the service is still young and it is hoped that it will cover more countries as it develops.
"No Internet Connection or Smartphone? You Can Still Use Bitcoin Now (*)."
Even though the project is young, it is something that can be useful to compensate for the absence of Internet in some territories, while offering a fallback solution in the case of a total absence of Internet for one reason or another. Obviously, in the case of a nuclear holocaust, it would be different, but that's a scenario where no services would work. Not just the Bitcoin network...
Going further, other solutions could be used to transfer data, via radio waves or sneakernet. The sneakernet is a method of transferring files without a computer network, which works for example through USB keys or external hard drives.
All of these solutions could make it possible in extreme situations to continue making Bitcoin transactions. It would not be ideal of course, but it would be possible.
The big question that arises after this analysis is whether it would be possible to make such transactions on the current banking system in the event of a prolonged widespread Internet outage. In my opinion, it would not be possible, because the current system is far too complex to use USSD technology for sending data or the sneakernet.
If you take it a step further, you'll see that a global Internet shutdown would benefit Bitcoin in the long run. It would only further demonstrate the superiority and resilience of the Bitcoin system over the current monetary and financial system.
So you can rest assured that governments will not attack Bitcoin from this angle, because it would be even more damaging for those attacking Bitcoin than for the Bitcoin system itself!
More reading
Don't take for granted the word of Bitcoiners who tell you that Bitcoin is an incredible monetary revolution, but verify it for yourself by developing the knowledge to build your truth about Bitcoin.
That's what I suggest you do in the book “The Truth About Bitcoin: Everything you need to build your truth about Bitcoin and stop trusting others without verifying.”
The book is available on various platforms:
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In P2P mode in PDF format or EPUB format with payment in BTC: contact me by email at [email protected]
