What if Governments Shutdown the Internet?

[(altair)]

I honestly think Bitcoin isn't decentralized enough considering that government still controls the Internet and can easily censor or shut them down (is this even possible?) anytime.
The move by government to make us go cashless by gradually phasing out cash is even more worrisome, could make them have absolute control over us.
We need some sort of decentralized "physical Bitcoin" that doesn't depend on the Internet and can be exchanged for online Bitcoin.  It is too risky not to have offline alternatives to Bitcoin to act as backup plan for online Bitcoin in case something big goes wrong.




Pls I need to know something,  Is it possible to exchange Bitcoin with other people without being connected to the Internet?
Let say the government bans the Internet and you have your Bitcoin offline(in cold storage right?), can you exchange the Bitcoin to the next person by simply transferring some Bitcoin from cold storage to his/her computer, phone or even data storage devices(like SD Card, USB, Hard drive etc)?
If this is possible then no need for the "Physical Bitcoin"

That's the great thing about Bitcoin. Leave that govt controlled area with your backup seed phrase and you will have access to your money in your new land.

I forgot to mention. Govts don't control the Internet, we do. So there's that.

Yes this is true. Government doesn't control  nor own the internet so they can't just shut down the internet. Yes they can track some VPN but not to the point that they just shut it off. Internet owns by private sectors.
You're idea is good but stop worrying in some things that we don't want to happen.

[ninche]

we will all die

[osmanhalifa]

As long as it was created by the people, the internet cannot get sanctioned by the government that easy

[Dontme]

It is impossible for the government to just shutdown the internet because not only the user of bitcoin or any cryptocurrency are using bitcoin, almost all of the people are using internet now, there will be a big problem if they do it. And if they really shutdown the internet it will be all bitcoin user's lost.

[jubalix]

I expect that BTC and or ETH will eventually fund satellites to act as a back up (albiet slow).

Then the satellites could be shot down I guess, but then we would fund armed satellites or may 100's of little one from one many launch that just broadcasts blocks and does fairly slow hash for the next block to save power. So that if you do take down the internet they will be the fastest hash on the network.

Think of 100 rasberri pi zero's with solar panels per launch, thought the transmitter would be much harder and power consuming.

[bitcoinbox]

There is no button to shutdown the all internet. Internet means millions of servers all around the world own by private people, companies, institutions, etc. So it would be practically impossible for governments to shutdown the entire internet.

[Larva14]

I'm trying to figure it out yet I can't imagine it. Also, it's impossible to happen sicne they don't have  control in all database, satellite, signals, and etc. Yet, it's just an imagination and if it happens, people in this world would definitely be angry.

[frowsiter]

It won't be possible. Government itself rely on internet for performing various internal tasks. The country will fall in the next 24 hours if internet stops working. Internet itself is trillions trillion dollar industry which operates in mega IT companies, Military's services, and whole economic system. If internet shuts down then all the interdependent stuff will go off the greed. Just because of bitcoin government will never do anything that harm the security of nation and its assets. We are all into internet and it's too late to shut it.

[ImHash]

I expect that BTC and or ETH will eventually fund satellites to act as a back up (albiet slow).

Then the satellites could be shot down I guess, but then we would fund armed satellites or may 100's of little one from one many launch that just broadcasts blocks and does fairly slow hash for the next block to save power. So that if you do take down the internet they will be the fastest hash on the network.

Think of 100 rasberri pi zero's with solar panels per launch, thought the transmitter would be much harder and power consuming.

Wow, I'll be damned how many 007 movies have you watched? if any government wants to shut down the internet, why would they go and bombard their own power plants just to deny a block in a city from having electricity? believe me the world is not ought to get us, we're just too much paranoid.

[DoublerHunter]

If government will shutdown the internet then bitcoin will die and a lot of people will suffer from huge losses because of this kind of action that the government will make but not only bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will receive such a huge loss because most of the businesses of the government are done in the internet so they will have a huge loss also. In reality, they will never do that because a lot of businesses will have a huge damage.

[Anegg]

I honestly think Bitcoin isn't decentralized enough considering that government still controls the Internet and can easily censor or shut them down (is this even possible?) anytime.
The move by government to make us go cashless by gradually phasing out cash is even more worrisome, could make them have absolute control over us.
We need some sort of decentralized "physical Bitcoin" that doesn't depend on the Internet and can be exchanged for online Bitcoin.  It is too risky not to have offline alternatives to Bitcoin to act as backup plan for online Bitcoin in case something big goes wrong.




Pls I need to know something,  Is it possible to exchange Bitcoin with other people without being connected to the Internet?
Let say the government bans the Internet and you have your Bitcoin offline(in cold storage right?), can you exchange the Bitcoin to the next person by simply transferring some Bitcoin from cold storage to his/her computer, phone or even data storage devices(like SD Card, USB, Hard drive etc)?
If this is possible then no need for the "Physical Bitcoin"

The government will never shut down the internet since the entire market will crash, and also the government has heaps of documents that are online. The government relies on the internet way  too much.

[zedicus]

If government is to shut down internet totally and worldwide that will be the end of online stuffs online market online communication online transaction and cryptocurrencies because they are all based on the internet

[DOGE12321]

Governments cannot shut down Bitcoin. The 2 reasons for this is the Streisand effect and the fact that a ban on Bitcoin is difficult to enforce. Some things have an adverse effect when banned. Instead of becoming less used, it banning something has the effect of publicising it. Moreover, Bitcoin has no centre to attack. There is no single organisation or person that controls Bitcoin and transactions don't go through a central clearing house there is really no way a regulator can stop people from downloading Bitcoin wallets and sending each other bitcoins. If there we to block all the websites that people can download Bitcoin wallets from, new ones will come up and some people will compile their own wallets from source code. The only way the usage of Bitcoin can be truly reduced is if the internet is banned. And governments would not do that. The internet is the backbone of the country. If the internet was banned... it would be complete chaos. However, even then fervent Bitcoin users can send Bitcoin via SMS.

To cut a long story short, Bitcoin cannot be truly banned.

[thend1949]

Government can't shutdown bitcoin. As if they can shutdown internet in whole world that's impossible because we need internet not only bitcoin user but almost all of the people using internet. If they want to shutdown bitcoin they need new way to solve this that will not affect internet.

[Sadlife]

If they shutdown the internet that would be the ridiculous decision they've ever made because if they do that that would affect their banking services and will be unable to send and receive transactions that would drop their daily profit dramatically and also government employees will be affected cause they can't also send and receive emails. The internet is important part of our daily lives you easily browse the web to information and contact people and interact with social media platforms. If the internet gets shutdown it will not only affect bitcoin but many other platforms.

[Taskford]

Maybe that can be happen when there's World War III.
When the security of many are in danger because of the terrorism. Internet can be use by terrorists to hack some system and other internet related stuff. Like just happening in some countries in Middle East.
But this shutdown thing is far from reality as of now. So much better in what you think.

[hajimasan]

I honestly think Bitcoin isn't decentralized enough considering that government still controls the Internet and can easily censor or shut them down (is this even possible?) anytime.
The move by government to make us go cashless by gradually phasing out cash is even more worrisome, could make them have absolute control over us.
We need some sort of decentralized "physical Bitcoin" that doesn't depend on the Internet and can be exchanged for online Bitcoin.  It is too risky not to have offline alternatives to Bitcoin to act as backup plan for online Bitcoin in case something big goes wrong.




Pls I need to know something,  Is it possible to exchange Bitcoin with other people without being connected to the Internet?
Let say the government bans the Internet and you have your Bitcoin offline(in cold storage right?), can you exchange the Bitcoin to the next person by simply transferring some Bitcoin from cold storage to his/her computer, phone or even data storage devices(like SD Card, USB, Hard drive etc)?
If this is possible then no need for the "Physical Bitcoin"

First of all in the current time we can't live without the internet connection and also without the internet connection we can't use even the fiat money and also the banking sector will go down  after the shutting down of the internet .
Here if the government made ban of the Bitcoin at the internet then still we can use Bitcoin in every ways , because if a simple person can make Bitcoin then I am 100% sure that he will make a better way to use Bitcoin at internet without knowing anyone .
Since already in few countries Bitcoin is banned with the ip restrictions but still people are using the Bitcoin with vpn services .
So in the other cases whether the Bitcoin ban or block of the internet connection ( which is impossible ) , no one can stopped us to use Bitcoin .

[adzino]

Isn't the Internet controlled by the government in North Korea?  I wonder if they have access to Bitcoin over there?

They just have limited access to the global internet and most of the content they have access to are just local content and heavily censored.  You also need special permission to access the internet though. Sucks.

[dillpicklechips]

I honestly think Bitcoin isn't decentralized enough considering that government still controls the Internet and can easily censor or shut them down (is this even possible?) anytime.
The move by government to make us go cashless by gradually phasing out cash is even more worrisome, could make them have absolute control over us.
We need some sort of decentralized "physical Bitcoin" that doesn't depend on the Internet and can be exchanged for online Bitcoin.  It is too risky not to have offline alternatives to Bitcoin to act as backup plan for online Bitcoin in case something big goes wrong.




Pls I need to know something,  Is it possible to exchange Bitcoin with other people without being connected to the Internet?
Let say the government bans the Internet and you have your Bitcoin offline(in cold storage right?), can you exchange the Bitcoin to the next person by simply transferring some Bitcoin from cold storage to his/her computer, phone or even data storage devices(like SD Card, USB, Hard drive etc)?
If this is possible then no need for the "Physical Bitcoin"

Honestly, government can't do as they wish like shutting down the internet since a lot of its citizens would surely bring a protest and those companies who are associated with internet and also it would also result for some people in this industry to become unemployed. It would surely ruin their economy and popularity of those who pass the bill to cascade. In democratic government, the people is the government but if its North Korea then it is possible.

Your suggestion is nice and I hope someone would develop your idea. I am thinking of that for a long time though I don't have the skills nor expertise to make it happen or say it is possible but I hope it is.

[Creepings]

I honestly think Bitcoin isn't decentralized enough considering that government still controls the Internet and can easily censor or shut them down (is this even possible?) anytime.
The move by government to make us go cashless by gradually phasing out cash is even more worrisome, could make them have absolute control over us.
We need some sort of decentralized "physical Bitcoin" that doesn't depend on the Internet and can be exchanged for online Bitcoin.  It is too risky not to have offline alternatives to Bitcoin to act as backup plan for online Bitcoin in case something big goes wrong.




Pls I need to know something,  Is it possible to exchange Bitcoin with other people without being connected to the Internet?
Let say the government bans the Internet and you have your Bitcoin offline(in cold storage right?), can you exchange the Bitcoin to the next person by simply transferring some Bitcoin from cold storage to his/her computer, phone or even data storage devices(like SD Card, USB, Hard drive etc)?
If this is possible then no need for the "Physical Bitcoin"

As you have said, bitcoin can still be sent by copying the paper or cold wallet into their computer using flash drives or SD cards. But I don't think it will be of use. Let's say internet was banned, VPN are shut down, no connection, just phone and telegraph, you think people will be still using bitcoin? If that happens no one will be using bitcoin and the world will be boring and disastrous as hell.