The severing of international Internet cables.

[nelson4lov]

In light of the tense global situation and hints about the possibility of a nuclear war due to the Russian-Ukrainian war and the indirect confrontation between Russia and NATO, there is a possibility, albeit weak, of such a nuclear war.

If this war occurs, God forbid, the electricity and Internet infrastructure around the world will be affected and may be completely destroyed. There are central Internet servers spread around the world, and if they are destroyed, it may lead to an Internet outage in most countries of the world, and thus a real problem will arise for the Bitcoin network if there is no Spare solutions.

The only problem is that there are currently no solutions tailored for such solutions and it might get nasty for "decentralized networks". If ever there is a time to gain 100% or (51% for most blockchain networks) control of a blockchain network, that might be the time we see these networks face real threats. Now is the best time for possible solutions to start creating those. While it would be interesting to know how it plays out, I think that most blockchains aren't for such technological disaster. This is a problem. Anybody that solves this global-sized problem should make bank and its definitely not Starlink as I have seen others suggested in this thread already.

[Jet Cash]

Wow! Some interesting replies and opinions in this thread.

I was surprised to see an accusation that I am Chinese of Russian. I think that many here know that I am a traditional Englishman, and I am ex-public school ( those are the posh expensive ones in England, not the free state ones). I have traditional English values , and I am saddened by the direction the UK has taken over the last years. I am an ex-systems programmer, and I have been trained to question most problems and issues, and to try to establish the root causes. For example, if you consider the reasons that the US started the war in Ukrain, and why Boris Johnson ( an Eton/Oxford banker ) destroyed the peace agrrement agreed with Russia, you can get some idea of the possible direction that international warfare will take over the next 10 years. A nuclear war is unlikely. Why do you need to risk damaging national assets, when you can selectively destroy a population by replacing its farming with synthetic products that reduce fertility and longevity. Then you can further weaken the populatiion with poisonous pharmaceuticals and fake pandemics.

I believe the threat to the Internet lies in the international connectivity, and not in its servers. Of course government restriction may affect servers in some countries, but this should leave other countries free to communicate. Most of the international traffic is carried via submarine cabling, and I understand that around 85% of the European/American traffic passes by the Faroe islands. Russia and other countries must be aware of this, and there are reports of unusual vessels sniffing around this area. The loss of these cables would make it difficult for the US to prosecute a war against China. The Houthi attacks on cables in the Red Sea are fairly widely reported, and Telecoms companies are having to reroute cables as a result. This is expersive, and very disruptive. Satellite links are also vulnerable and expensive.

My suggestion was an attempt to reduce the international traffic required by the Bitcoin blockchain and mining, and hopefully this would make it more secure without reducing its fundamental decentralisation. Unfortunately my knowledge of Bitcoin is not sufficient to flesh out my suggestions, and I hoped that some of the more knowledgeable members here could provide this, or dismiss the suggestion as impractical.

[KingsDen]

I'm starting to see more and more reports of Internet cables being severed. We have always had a few fail as a result of accidental damage, but the bellicose actions of the US seem to be leading us into a period of deliberate damage to weaken intercontinental communications.

I had thought that the recent internet collapse is peculiar to my country alone. I have watched out to see others complain and I have just seen now. I had thought communication will always be unhindered, but the recent collapse made me think twice. Like internet could be stopped or what ...

I believe we already have good alternative which is Starlink.

How many investors in bitcoins can really afford the Starlink? and its monthly subscription?

You’ve seen the amount of money invested in cryptocurrency? Have you checked how much is in the Bitcoin market? People have invested really large sums of money into crypto and for those who know what they have in it, they won’t want to miss a beat. But like I heard, this affected Africa continent. They can be smart about it by contributing money to purchase it (if they can’t afford it individually). Same goes for the subscription.

It depends if there's alot of understanding and co-operation in your neighborhood. You can only do this with people of great understanding.

[famososMuertos]

I believe there is eventually a danger underlying it and it is an event that has happened before, in 2013 there was a similar attempt, but due to their configuration these cables have redundancy, that allows the network to survive in percentages that do not lead to a collapse.

[Volimack]

As far as I understand bitcoin network does not work with any purpose of decentralization. As a digital currency the network will have no effect. No one can destroy the vision of Bitcoin. The Bitcoin network is a peer-to-peer network operated through a cryptographic protocol. An ad-hoc decentralized network of volunteers is sufficient for this. The leadership of the bitcoin network will remain the same even if the country's internet outages cause problems for the war.

[Jegileman]

I believe we already have good alternative which is Starlink.

How many investors in bitcoins can really afford the Starlink? and its monthly subscription?

You’ve seen the amount of money invested in cryptocurrency? Have you checked how much is in the Bitcoin market? People have invested really large sums of money into crypto and for those who know what they have in it, they won’t want to miss a beat. But like I heard, this affected Africa continent. They can be smart about it by contributing money to purchase it (if they can’t afford it individually). Same goes for the subscription.

Everyone is talking about the advantage of using this network when shared between interested users but have also forgotten what could be the implication of it when the agreed terms are breached by one of the parties or when one of them engages in an act that could put you all in trouble through the shared network. This could be a solution to get out of this network issue for the meantime, but having it shared won’t make it last forever because along the way, misunderstandings and lack of trusts are bound to change some rules which won’t go well down the line.

To have access to bitcoin network always needs good internet connectivity, but if it is not mandatory to own a star link because of its high cost now, it is better not to split the bills and purchase one for now because of the implications it could pose to you. The network downtime will be fixed soon and things will go back to normal until then, we will also wait for other international internet networks to be cheaper and accessible to one individual per network.

[oktana]

I'm starting to see more and more reports of Internet cables being severed. We have always had a few fail as a result of accidental damage, but the bellicose actions of the US seem to be leading us into a period of deliberate damage to weaken intercontinental communications.

I had thought that the recent internet collapse is peculiar to my country alone. I have watched out to see others complain and I have just seen now. I had thought communication will always be unhindered, but the recent collapse made me think twice. Like internet could be stopped or what ...

This wasn’t caused by the government so it isn’t about your country. From the information I got, it affected various countries. Also, even if communication can be hindered, it can’t be hindered all over the world. Asides the fact that there’s starlink which brings even more connectedness, all the internet can’t be shut down at the same time. Maybe unless there’s an alien invasion and they have some sort of radioactive wave that blinds all signal (if you believe in aliens).

[AakZaki]

Now that we have entered the Wireless era, if you want to avoid unilateral cable cuts due to America's aggressive actions, then use wireless internet services. Maybe you can use Elon Musk's Starlink. But I don't know how it applies to Mining Machines, whether it is strong or not. Cables are always a problem everywhere, not just in America, this is also due to natural conditions that cause internet cables to break.