What if Governments Shutdown the Internet?

[SHAWN-MIDWAYS]

I do not think they would what to go that route considering the advancement of new technologies and the Internet being at the centre of almost everything from the banking sector, space exploration, scientific research and the alike...but  if our Governments were to shut down the Internet that would render our cryptocurrencies useless.

[ABISprotocol]

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)?

TL;DR:  Yes.

See, for example, some discussion of the offline transmission of wood and paper token concept at

https://thecryptosphere.com/2015/05/19/rebuilding-communities-and-identities-with-usb-sticks-and-love-by-anonyodinn/

People tend to forget that NFC capacity is built right into bitcoin so that makes it easy to scan and do all sorts of things with, without actually having to have a full "online" system completely operational.  There have been whole discussions about transacting without confirmations and consensus (to a certain degree, in other words without a great many people available to do so until a network is developed or recovers) and YES IT IS POSSIBLE, I don't want to have this conversation all over again.  So I won't even go there.  Will not beat a dead horse.

See the total offline setup with minimal hardware requirements (though you'd also need to add some small solar panels and ideally a small battery bank - you can buy all this solar energy stuff you need in REI sporting goods store nowadays)

http://betteroffbitcoin.com/a-protocol-for-offline-bitcoin-over-radio-transactions/

Note that you will need to have this set up (with written instructions on paper) before a major event hits such as a power outage / natural disaster / war problem.  But yes.  It is absolutely possible and not only that, people are doing it.  

Also, it's possible to broadcast bitcoin txs over television (which doesn't require internet and doesn't require MURS radio setup... but if the power goes out regionally so does the TV.  

However, I should point out that it's possible to do it via TV, anyway, which doesn't rely upon internet.  It's also already been done so it's not just a hypothetical as in "what if we could."  Since it has already been done in (a couple) countries, I've suggested that it also be tried in China as an anti-censorship mechanism.

They will never get rid of their TV, so.... you know, ride the wave.

[Apened]

First of all do you think government will do that just because of transacting of by using bitcoins? They can banned sites to access it but to shutdown the internet is a big problem for the government .Establishments and government uses over the use of internet will stop .Almost all of the things now were run by internet connections the security , banks etc. Don't ever bother yourself thinking up on that things instead do your best to make out bitcoins if you need .

[Rufsilf]

If governments will shutdown the internet then bitcoin will die because bitcoin can only be found in the internet so if the internet will be shutdown by the governments then there is no sense of having bitcoin so i think it is better to just hold the 50% of our bitcoin and exchange the rest in cash so we can avoid getting stuck to this worst case scenario.

[Tappolo]

As far as all internet goes, no one ever blocks the WHOLE internet. Some countries can but again, Internet is not the only network in the world. Besides that, you have peer-to-peer transactions so if government want to look at all traffic (including encrypted) they would need to install enormous scrapers on data-centers

[DavidAgwa]

No. Stopping the internet will mean stopping governments that means stopping the people and we are the people

[head.arrow]

It will never happen
internet is like a blockchain if you close one end, It will pop-up from another end
Government runs on we the people

[Faye16]

If governments shut down the internet,  I don't know what I am going to do with them. Many people will complain about this. A lot of businesses rely on the internet, remittances transaction, online shop. Internet shut off together with their business. The government will also shut down because some big companies paying their taxes and that taxes is one of their source of income.

[Schuyler]

Well, the use of internet is considered a right already, so if the government shuts down the internet, it is already a violation of our basic human right. And I don’t think it will be to the best interest of the government to disable the internet as most of their services rely on internet as well. That would just be counter productive and would just create an uproar among the citizens.

[1.btcwonder]

The government doesn't own their switches and routers that they could just "power off" to stop the Internet. Definitely, they are having their own organization, but this will not destroy the Internet. I don't think so that the Internet can be "shut down" by someone because the internet includes the huge amount of data and info as well as the huge figure of companies (ISPs) involved.

[ankit10]

I dont think any government want to "KILL" own economy by stop using internet for all country person. But yes, in any critical situation any government can stop internet. Many times we find that government stop internet is some specific areas at the time of " big RIOTS"
And using bitcoin without internet,Physical Bitcoin is not good  idea, you can't buy anything from foreign countries because of it increase fees / transaction fee/

[Aveatrex]

If the internet somehow get shuted down,governments itself will get affected as modern technology depend on internet,If internet shutdown then we will go back to middle ages simply because most big companies will shutdown (microsoft,google,facebook etc..) you can imagine the rest lol..

[AicecreaME]

If governments will shutdown the internet then bitcoin will die because bitcoin can only be found in the internet so if the internet will be shutdown by the governments then there is no sense of having bitcoin so i think it is better to just hold the 50% of our bitcoin and exchange the rest in cash so we can avoid getting stuck to this worst case scenario.

It won't die, the internet is only the one that will die, bitcoin will remain out there and we can't only use it or access it since the Internet is going to be shut down by the Goverment. Bitcoin is decentralized so it won't die no matter what happens, it will just going to exist but going to be useless since no one is going to use it anymore for example.

But if this thing is really going to happen, then all of the process of all the Cryptocurrencies here in the Crypto world because no one is going to manage it without the Internet. 

[magmar]

It will never gonna happen, if the government shutdown the internet, the world will have chaos. A lot of people will protest about it, especially business man. Their money are save on the internet, their bitcoins and a lot of cryptocurrency owners will get mad by the government.

Imagine a world without internet, all things will get back tge way it was. The world will be simple but slower than today. Everyone needs the internet nowadays, they cannot shut it down, or else the people will shut them down.

[Hydrogen]

That could kill amazon, online banking and cause trillions in lost revenue.

A complete shutdown may not be a likely scenario, instead some type of filtering or censorship policy would be preferred.

Censorship/internet filtering is terrible for online gaming btw.

Everyone's ping will be much higher if such a thing ever goes into effect.

[Mbah Tyo]

I think it is unlikely that it will happen, because without the internet the government will run slowly, if it is not possible to turn off all its internet network because there will be chaos where, the economy will be stuck, many banking in demo because the customer will withdraw his money, different from bitcoin, It can still be used in other countries without any difficulties and requirements.

[Vaculin]

It will never gonna happen, if the government shutdown the internet, the world will have chaos. A lot of people will protest about it, especially business man. Their money are save on the internet, their bitcoins and a lot of cryptocurrency owners will get mad by the government.

Imagine a world without internet, all things will get back tge way it was. The world will be simple but slower than today. Everyone needs the internet nowadays, they cannot shut it down, or else the people will shut them down.

In the first place what's the reason of shutting down the internet?It can only cause chaos to everyone.We are on our new generation,and almost all of the technologies are manipulated through the internet.So it's very useless to shut it down.All transactions will not be realized,and it will just create negative actions from the people and those who are concerned.

[Xester]

I think it is unlikely that it will happen, because without the internet the government will run slowly, if it is not possible to turn off all its internet network because there will be chaos where, the economy will be stuck, many banking in demo because the customer will withdraw his money, different from bitcoin, It can still be used in other countries without any difficulties and requirements.

Yes I agree.  That would be so impossible considering that internet is vital in our government.  All data and information about everything and anything on its people uses internet.  They will not give up something that is so beneficial with them.  And in case they will do it, for sure there would be a world war III.

[Savemore]

It is really impossible that the government will shutdown the internet. The government can't shutdown it because they are not holding the internet and also they don't have a reason to shutdown it.

[Victorycoin]

It is not possible for the government to prevent Bitcoin transactions by censoring the internet. With VPNs and web-proxies being easily available, that will be unpractical. So the only option left is to block internet altogether. It is never going to happen, as there will be widespread anarchy and chaos.

Government can shut down anything they want to shut down. It has happened before and nothing happened. Why do some government countries stops access to some sites, its because they can do it.  A government in a country shut down the country's internet for hours because election is going on and they don't want citizens posting updates on the social media but the effect will be haphazard and that is one unique thing about bitcoin and why they cannot stop its penetration and reason why they are now looking for ways around it.

Not possible in any advanced country and the case for an election is temporal, on a prolonged basis, no government has what it takes to effectively shut a country out of the internet. The governments are actually helpless with Bitcoin - crytocurrency in general else long ago would they have taken it under. Something not quite obvious, is the fact that the governments  that tried to stand in the way of Bitcoin actually ended up promoters of Bitcoin because people become  inquisitive about Bitcoin and hardly let go after discovering it.