Bitcoin Forum

If you guys don't know then let me say currently in my region Bangladesh the situation is unrest with the Quota Protest.
And this protest became massive only because of internet and social media. And for this, our Dictators shut down the Internet Connection of the entire country for 5 days to turn the situation towards them. To say that these five days our Bangladeshi people were completely isolated from the Internet or the world. You can visit this thread to know more details - Attacks on quota movement students (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5503130.msg64330760#msg64330760)

Now I come to the real point, most of us who are here have investment in cryptocurrency or bitcoin or selling services which is very related to bitcoin.

What will Bitcoiners do with their transactions/trades in this situation? Can a Satelite Internet connection can be only the way ?

Are bitcoiner really have the decentralized system, which can't be controlled? Because at the end of the day, I'm seeing that we are hostage to the government. It appears that all control is in the hands of the government i.e. to the ruler party.

Now I want to know if there is ever such a situation in your country then what should be the pre-preparation? Let's discuss-

Nothing like this has ever happened in my country that I know of. Even during nationwide protest, the government freeze the bank accounts of some people known that are involved in the protest but Internet was never disconnected. I only heard of government disconnect Internet from other countries. I noticed this is coming in only Asian countries.

Yes. The government can have control over the underwater internet cables. Those internet providers using underwater internet cables are even regulated by the government, and they can be controlled.

Since my days of growing up till now I haven't heard of my country experiencing any internet outage for any reason to the best of my knowledge but we once experienced a partial breakdown of internet for few weeks and the panic was so much i could imagine a nation wide outage thats really a lot.

Now it's getting to our knowledge that the governments are basically having full control over our lives which is a reason bitcoin stands against, with the internet related outage we can be short out as bitcoiners or crypto related dealers. since this is a new experience I believe there will be a need for a solution outside the governmental reach but what could that be? because basically everything even the private satellite needs the general service of the internet to be launched.

At this point we might be stuck in the hands of the government.

For bitcoin, it can't be controlled by the governments but the use is obviously being controlled. No doubt

This must be a very bad experience for you guys over there, 5 days of total internet lock out is a divastating situation I can only imagine this since I haven't experienced such before, but I remember the feelings back then when the government in my country blocked twitter now X in my country, it affected works and businesses alot even though we hard live internet.
But in your case the whole internet is off which is more severe compared to ours, what I want to ask is, do you know anyone using sitelight to connect to the internet such as the Elon Musk site, because only from such information from users can guarantee you that, their still hard internet even though the rest are shout down.

Lastly, since you said there is no internet, how are you able to connect to the forum?

It didn't happened to my country and to me yet, so I guess on how did you survived with that situation is likely what I might do as well. But having a satellite connection is going to be a good idea, one of it is with Elon Musk's Starlink.

While your situation is an isolated if it relates to the Bitcoin network, the network itself will continue to operation from the other parts of the world where internet is active and there are miners that have their mining farms operating to keep going.

I don't know, data connections might also be stopped but that is unacceptable if the government itself is the one that instructed to turn off internet connection.

We have not had such experiences in my country before, just as Charles mentioned, and I don't even wish for such to happen in this place because it will just make life very unbearable.
 
Bitcoin won't be the only point of payment that will be affected; bank transfers and other payment points won't also work, so how will there ever be any transactions to take place during that period? 
 
The only option we will have is to go back to our old trade ways, which is to use whatever we have in our hands (fiat) to do business with, and anything that has to do with online will be closed for that period. It's not something I think there is any other option than to accept it that way, or better yet, if the person can't bear it, it's just to leave that country for the main time.

I don't think our country will also cut the internet connection just like what Bangladesh government has did. If this happens, surely a lot of companies and freelancers will certainly be in trouble, even accessing our crypto investments will never be possible. However, it cannot be denied that if the government will demand for an internet shutdown even for a couple of days, it will definitely happen but they should also face all those complaints and address them properly as much as possible. Government without those big companies that are paying them taxes will considered be incapable and invaluable.

Internet via cable is more popular and available for more people than Satellite Internet connection that is only an alternative in some countries and areas, not everywhere on Earth.

Governments can do many things and sometimes they can abuse their power to request a company to stop a service, I am realistic about that. But the chance for all governments agree to do the same thing and succeed against their citizens globally is very small.

You need to prepare different wallets for storage a long time with cold wallets, more regular transaction need with hot wallets and prepare for time you don't have Internet. What will you do?

Prepare different methods for your fund transfer, spending like have some cash in your pocket, some money in your bank account, that's preparation.

So far, I've only seen Starlink as a reasonably cheap and fast source of internet for most areas. Generally, this is still a work in progress where the adoption rate is still quite low as compared to your traditional connectivity.

In terms of general Bitcoin's connection, the only current provider that I'm aware of is Blockstream. Blockstream has a satellite which allows their users to broadcast transactions through their satellite. You would have a good connectivity unless you've got a signal jammer in your location.

Turning off the internet for 5 days to make the situation more conducive is a very stupid step, because there are many sectors that will be affected by this and it will only make the situation even worse. What your government is doing only shows that they are a dictatorial government and they should be removed from their position.


There is nothing they can do, because to carry out transactions requires internet access, how can anyone carry out their transactions when they cannot connect to the Bitcoin network? However, a satellite internet network could be a solution to this, but as far as I know, the satellite internet network providers that are most easily accessible to people, such as Starlink, are not yet available in Bangladesh. But there is another problem, even when you have access to a private satellite internet network, you may be faced with signal jammers which are usually used by the government to block signals in certain areas, but this can be overcome if we go out of range.


The Bitcoin network is decentralized and the government will not be able to intervene in this network. But again, all of this requires internet access, so if there is no internet access, how can anyone carry out transactions. So internet access is very important.

Since I was born, I have yet to hear a newspaper or TV headline saying that internet service has been completely shut down for five days in a country. But being a citizen of Bangladesh, we have had this bad experience. People of Bangladesh may well understand how difficult it is to continue online based activities when the internet connection is disconnected. Freelancers in this country were most troubled due to lack of internet along with us.

If a country does not have internet Access, it may affect Bitcoin, because Bitcoin is a virtual currency. Which can be transacted online only. Moreover, internet is also required for Bitcoin transactions to be successful. These are not possible if the internet service is interrupted.

Some other companies have started trying to compete with Starlink. With time, we will see more like Starlink. Starlink is cheap and affordable in my country as the kit is just around $285. With a monthly subscription of around $25 with unlimited internet access.

Which means if I do not have any subscription, I can still be able to broadcast bitcoin transaction using Blackstream Green wallet? I just want to be certain and maybe I can test it and see if it works.

But there are some people that will be trading and involved in crypto in a way noncustodial wallet may not only be what they are using. Government cutting electricity would be a big disadvantage for these kind of people.

For now, satellite internet is becoming more accessible. The growth is accelerating quite fast. Here in my place, Starlink kits are selling like hotcakes. People who are into online jobs and who stay in the cities solely because of faster internet are now beginning to go home thanks to Starlink. So, this is somehow a solution to the concern of the internet being under the control of the government.

As far as the situation in Bangladesh is concerned, it seems to me the decision of the government to implement an internet blackout is suicide. It was an extremely poor decision on their part. As if it prevents the people all over the country from communicating with each other. As if it addresses the main issue. Whoever made the decision was poorly advised.

I'm not in any way preparing for this scenario. After all, an internet blackout sounds ludicruos to me. If my country plans to implement something like this in the middle of some chaos, there will certainly be a lot of opposition that it won't push through. In the first place, such decision hurts them more than everybody else.

The problem with Starlink is that while their satellites can reach every part of the world right now, they don't necessarily have the telco licenses to operate in many of those countries and they have to get approved by said countries. Which of course means some countries will never get this tech.


It will help with paying the invoice, but you can't get the invoice on the website in the first place without the internet.

Yeah, but it isn't portable. That's probably my main concern as of now. I don't think any competitors would be in the same playing field as them soon... Being able to launch the satellites as and when they want would give them the competitive advantage that most others wouldn't have.

Yeah, you just need to purchase the kit. The way I see it is that there will always be areas where it can't be completely fulfilled. The needs of the people cannot easily be substituted by most of the other solutions there we have. I bet if the internet is cut off, there'll be better things to worry about anyways. Fulfilling the basic needs should be the priority.

That is too bad. It would apply to literally any tech that operates on the radio frequency. I don't foresee a quick and easy solution to circumvent this. In areas where internet is restricted, I would think that regulations would prohibit any of these sorts of tech. Doesn't mean they cannot operate though, Iran is an example.
If your internet is cut off, then the focus should be on facilitating offline transactions. If you can get internet to retrieve the invoice, then this topic probably wouldn't be a problem at all.

I did see the news on several news channels, and clearly the unrest raises valid concerns that these politicians should be ashamed of as the job quota is pretty much nepotism which disadvantages the students for a chance to find a job in government and they should rescind their decision to avoid the discrimination.

And shutting off the internet just validates the protests and shows how dictatorial they are trying to be...let them act civil about this & not go the path they have chosen.

This is why I don't like politicians because they will force unfavorable laws on people and when things go south they will be in the comfort of their homes away from all the heat.

I guess satellite internet is the way to go, hope Elon Musk is watching and making services like Starlink available to avoid such government shutdowns and keep crypto usage in such situations.

Satellite internet and move to other country are the solution, I don't see any problem at all.

If someone can't even afford to buy satellite internet or fly to other country, it means they're not rich, not rich means not invest a lot in Bitcoin. That's why even there was a shutdown on internet connection in your country, it doesn't affect Bitcoin price.

No ones ready to face internet blackout.

So there are basically 2 scenarios here.

Scenario 1: Internet access to a particular region is shut down
If this happens it won't effect the bitcoin network in any way because bitcoin is decentralized and the transactions will keep getting confirmed by the other nodes which are outside those regions.

Scenario 2: Internet access to the whole world is shut down
This is highly unlikely to happen because it would require a huge catostrophic event for that to happen.
Even in that case what would happen is that the internet might be down for some days throughout the world but whenever it comes back up the bitcoin network will resume and the transactions will be mined by the miners again.

So there is nothing to worry about.

We can't be certain for sure mate. The government has power to do what ever they so which and thus if they want to shut down the internet service provides in the country it won't take they much time. The truth is that they also need the Internet services to continue their evil communications amongst themselves so they might not consider that.
From what op explained, I already seen that it was be a bad experience for them. But he shouldn't be scared about his Bitcoins and then shutting down the internet doesn't literally take away it's decentralized. Yes for the time being when they have control of the internet you just have to let go and await it's return. There isn't anything one can do, but be rest assured that when it comes back you Bitcoins will still be there. That's why it's good to have alternative means of payments. That is what Bitcoin is and that is what you should consider it as.

Maybe decentralized internet will become a thing in the future and we wouldn't have to rely on Internet Service Providers(ISPs) for our internet connection. Elon Musk had shown us the way with Starlink, even though Starlink is a centralized service and relies on Musk's good will. Unfortunately, the crypto world is very dependent on the internet. I remember that there was a way for us to make paper Bitcoins and turn Bitcoin offline, but this would be very inconvenient.

We live in a centralized world and the government is the one who manages everything, you should not expect that there will be some technology or power that can help us completely escape government control. The advent of bitcoin has given us increased privacy and it has been a huge success, but don't think it can help us escape government surveillance completely, it never will happen.

I have read a lot of news about the situation in your country and this is the first time I have seen the government impose a large-scale Internet shutdown at the national level. Because this would cause serious damage to the national economy, it is incomprehensible for your government to make such a decision.


If you follow the news about what's happening in OP's country, you'll see that it happened a few days ago and things are slowly calming down. So it's understandable that OP can use the internet again, but as far as I know, things are still not completely stable.