cash remains the only option if there's an emergency

[European Central Bank]

I don't think bitcoin will be any use in a genuine and extended crisis. I don't think paper money will be much use either. These guys who are piling up gold are gonna get a shock too. All money is abstract. Guns, food and medicine is the real deal.

[ausbit]

A credit card with nice credit limit is great in case of an emergency so I don't agree that cash is the only option

As far as the topic is concerned, cash really remains the only option if there is any emergency then I feel its really a true thing because in emergency we can get cash from friend, relatives or through ATM debit card and credit card depends if the person need money in emergency carrying the card or not.

[BellaBitBit]

with the future google satellite internet connection, i'm sure there will no be excuse about not having internet

this is not even an issue, unless he was desperately to buy foods or something medical, i'm sure for any other thing you can wait two days

I am hoping for the satellite internet connections to happen now already! This will be a game changer and yes, it will keep bitcoin going in an emergency. Always be prepared for an emergency.

[cjmoles]

If there were a cataclysmic event so large that it disabled the Bitcoin network, then cash wouldn't be much good either.  Knowledge, leadership skills, and a strong sense of community would be the main commodity and the exchange currency would be labor.  You wouldn't need cash because the store shelves would be empty.

[lixer]

If there were a cataclysmic event so large that it disabled the Bitcoin network, then cash wouldn't be much good either.  Knowledge, leadership skills, and a strong sense of community would be the main commodity and the exchange currency would be labor.  You wouldn't need cash because the store shelves would be empty.

Yes, If there is an emergeny, only physical cash comes handy and not bitcoins. But is one has a bitcoin debit card, he/she can withdraw the amount via an ATM and use the cash in case of an emergency and hence it is only the ability to convert bitcoins to fiat that matters.

[btcprospecter]

Cash would only be good in a shtf scenario if that was what people needed more than likely people would want something else to barter with whether food water or anything else that was a necessity for survival

[thejaytiesto]

This is just not true. You can get a paper wallet, wrap it on water resistant plastic and there you go, you have your credit card. And in the future im sure they will invent super robust hardware wallets that are fully functional even under extreme circumstances like underwater, heat, being crushed by a truck and so on.

[EdenHazard]

I do not think so, it may happen in a big city, but if you are thinking about a small town that still have to put cash to make payments? even to know bitcoin is also very difficult.

[tvbcof]

I knew a lady once who was a child during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines.  She told me that her grandmother had a bamboo stick full of American coins (90% silver at the time.)  The family moved to the country to live with relatives and the bamboo tube got them through the event, which lasted for several years, relatively well.

It's worth note that more 'modern' occupations focus on clearing the countryside of humans as rural areas often act as a breeding ground for insurgency.  That was the main reason for napalming and agent-oranging the shit out of Vietnam, burning down rural villages, and killing the inhabitants as I understand things.  I would expect that the same tactics will be employed in the U.S. and like countries although the excuse will be that it is to comply with the United Nations Earth Charter and the 'wildlands' project.

Even in urban environments under a 'cashless' system, it will be extraordinarily difficult to completely halt black-market operations.  At least over a long duration.  Extreme surveillance will be attempted, and may actually work pretty well, but not completely.  It will be trivial to box out the current implementations of distributed crypto-currencies since they were, for the most part, not evolved to deal with the potential threats.  Silver coins will be much more difficult.  I expect that the technology to locate and identify masses of elemental metals are more advanced than most people realize however.  A silver or gold coin in one's pocket might act as a target beacon.  I don't know this, or course.  It's just a guess based on my observations of related technological progress.

[xmax]

I would have to ask the question as to what they could be buying if everything is down and not working.  I understand that that they will need the main parts of life, food, water, shelter, etc., but most things currently bought with Bitcoin would be useless at this point.  In the future I understand, but as for now, there is no need to spend it there.

[coinplus]

I do not think so, it may happen in a big city, but if you are thinking about a small town that still have to put cash to make payments? even to know bitcoin is also very difficult.

No, in metropolitan cities also same situations only. Bitcoins on its own is just a virtual currency that needs to be converted to fiat cash unlike other currencies like USD/EUR/GBP that can be used directly. If one needs to use bitcoins in case of an emergency, they need to access their online wallet and search for an exchanger which is quite tough.

[AtheistAKASaneBrain]

I knew a lady once who was a child during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines.  She told me that her grandmother had a bamboo stick full of American coins (90% silver at the time.)  The family moved to the country to live with relatives and the bamboo tube got them through the event, which lasted for several years, relatively well.

It's worth note that more 'modern' occupations focus on clearing the countryside of humans as rural areas often act as a breeding ground for insurgency.  That was the main reason for napalming and agent-oranging the shit out of Vietnam, burning down rural villages, and killing the inhabitants as I understand things.  I would expect that the same tactics will be employed in the U.S. and like countries although the excuse will be that it is to comply with the United Nations Earth Charter and the 'wildlands' project.

Even in urban environments under a 'cashless' system, it will be extraordinarily difficult to completely halt black-market operations.  At least over a long duration.  Extreme surveillance will be attempted, and may actually work pretty well, but not completely.  It will be trivial to box out the current implementations of distributed crypto-currencies since they were, for the most part, not evolved to deal with the potential threats.  Silver coins will be much more difficult.  I expect that the technology to locate and identify masses of elemental metals are more advanced than most people realize however.  A silver or gold coin in one's pocket might act as a target beacon.  I don't know this, or course.  It's just a guess based on my observations of related technological progress.

How can Bitcoin fail to resist an attack of massive surveillance? Maybe not right now, but give it one year and we will get it running with TOR seamlessly (already coming with 0.12), give it CC, integrated CoinJoin, bip47... what are they going to do? it's impossible to control at that point, only thing they can do is keep trying to develop a trojan horse to centralize nodes (Bitcoin XT and so on) but not even that seems to be working.

[bearex]

If there is a real emergency, goods remain the only option

[Altynbekova]

That's the reason why i never count on cards.
The moment something happends and there is no electricty you can't get anything.

Therefore I always hold a 100 bucks in my pocket and another 100 bucks in my car.

[Daniel91]

In my opinion gold is the best option if there's an emergency.
I'm afraid bitcoin funds will not help us much if there's an emergency because without Internet it's very difficult to transfer Bitcoin to our pockets.
Even cash can loose its value in the time of crisis.

[Goms]

I have a friend in Cannes, France. You may not know anything about it, but there were terrible floods there 10 days ago.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34443189

My friend told me her landline phone still doesn't work. There are no phones and no Internet in most of downtown Cannes. Electricity has been fixed quite rapidly, but for 2 days, the mobile phone networks were down, so no bitcoin, and no credit cards either! All the shops couldn't handle any transactions.

The only thing which kept on working was the fiber optic network, I guess because that's the newest.

The whole thing was very local. Everything was fine a few km North, but this shall reminds us that if there's a serious emergency, cash is the only safe option.

  I hope no lives were lost. Cash is still the most widely accepted means though, but ten years from now,  we just might go cashless.

[ASHLIUSZ]

during emergency situation cash is the only option... gold can also help you... but cant able to wait for bitcoin transfer..

[Jeremycoin]

But how if the emergency situation is when your house get burned and all your cash gone, think about it because your Bitcoin is still in the safe place on the network. Well, the problem would be different if you keep your Bitcoin in paper wallet or on your computer. That's why you have to use online wallet to besides cold storage, because I think it's more safer in this kind of situation.

[Mr. Big]

But how if the emergency situation is when your house get burned and all your cash gone, think about it because your Bitcoin is still in the safe place on the network. Well, the problem would be different if you keep your Bitcoin in paper wallet or on your computer. That's why you have to use online wallet to besides cold storage, because I think it's more safer in this kind of situation.

That's the worst scenario if you let your cash be burned along with your house...You still have your salary from the office where you work, loans, and insurances, so you will still have cash even if your house is burned along along with your cash..not to mention donations from your neighbors...

[sachung]

Yes, I think cash still has the advantage in conditions like these when having a creditcard since there aren't any companies accepting it directly. I think only cash and maybe gold has advantages like these "although gold still needs to be liquidized since you can't sell parts of it easily in such conditions"