What if the internet permanently shuts down

[Kelward]

Some few days back when the forum went down for some hours, some thoughts that I used to have suddenly resurfaced in my mind. What if the internet crashes permanently!  If for any reasons whether natural or manmade the internet suddenly stops working,, what will happen in the world. Unimaginable pandemonium is what will happen, because almost everything is connected to the internet, in fact the world today is so dependant on the internet to transact and communicate almost everything. Be it in finance, telecom, marketing and in every areas of technological advancements, all depends on the internet. It'll seem as if we've suddenly gone back to the stone age, if these where to happen.

I'll focus on finance, so I'm thinking what will happen to the bitcoin inside wallets, what will happen to every fiat currency in bank accounts, if everything erases as a result of internet total breakdown? Who do we hold responsible? I know that the internet technology is manmade, therefore it can not be hundred percent immune to faults and external attacks. And what if there is that less than one chance of it being faulty or compromised, what if that less than one  chance happens,? what will be the fate of the world that mainly depends on it to get things done? I'm no tech guru or a prophet of doom, but this are my thoughts and fears on the matter, although I sincerely hope that I'm very wrong on these thoughts.

I'd love to be enlightened better on why it can be impossible that the internet can never be permanently shutdown, having in mind the shortcomings that I've mentioned?

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[Zaguru12]

Straight answer; Don’t think it, we have grown pass that, it can all go off when only some better comes, as off now there isn’t any. So relax and worry about other things

[NeuroticFish]

I'll focus on finance, so I'm thinking what will happen to the bitcoin inside wallets, what will happen to every fiat currency in bank accounts, if everything erases as a result of internet total breakdown?

The bitcoins are not in the wallets, the wallets only hold the keys. The bitcoins "are" on the blockchain and copies of it are in a lot of computers all over the world.
The amounts of fiat in the bank accounts are written into databases which for most banks I expect to be backed up securely too.

In both cases people relying on the technology will have to wait patiently until the internet is restored, the things continue from where they left (especially bitcoin) and they get access to their money again.

The fact you compare one forum with a decentralized network like Bitcoin tells that pretty much want this pointless discussion that was started many times before.
An attack like you're saying would come from an intelligent race from outer space. And if so, each and everybody will have more urgent issues than their money.

[goxcraft]

When you turn off your computer does your data vanishes? No, it doesn't. It just stops at that current state. And when you turn back on again, you are where you left the last time. Nothing will erase. You won't be able to access it but just for temporary period of time. The magnitude of catastrophy you are asking is nearly unimaginable. Almost close to impossible. Just like @NeuroticFish said, it would be possible, only if we were attacked by an Alien force or any being with higher intelligence than us.

[Ruttoshi]

It is impossible for all the internet in the world to shut down at the same time, since there are different network providers. So don't think about what is impossible because internet has become like a basic need in the world because we are more into technology than before and the internet is compulsory to enable us make use of this technology

[PytagoraZ]

I'd love to be enlightened better on why it can be impossible that the internet can never be permanently shutdown, having in mind the shortcomings that I've mentioned?

Under normal conditions it is impossible for the internet to stop because the need for internet has almost become a primary need. You don't need to worry, if a problem occurs that causes the internet to shut down globally, many people will try to turn it back on.

But let's imagine the worst thing that happens, the internet shuts down completely due to natural factors that are getting worse. Humans will continue to struggle to survive because with or without the internet everything will be fine, even though it may be difficult at first

[YUriy1991]

I'll focus on finance, so I'm thinking what will happen to the bitcoin inside wallets, what will happen to every fiat currency in bank accounts, if everything erases as a result of internet total breakdown? Who do we hold responsible? I know that the internet technology is manmade, therefore it can not be hundred percent immune to faults and external attacks. And what if there is that less than one chance of it being faulty or compromised, what if that less than one  chance happens,? what will be the fate of the world that mainly depends on it to get things done? I'm no tech guru or a prophet of doom, but this are my thoughts and fears on the matter, although I sincerely hope that I'm very wrong on these thoughts.

I'd love to be enlightened better on why it can be impossible that the internet can never be permanently shutdown, having in mind the shortcomings that I've mentioned?

What is certain is that OP, if that happens at any time, be prepared for the worst (if the internet collapses) maybe my reasons and yours are not much different because we both know that being able to access and use crypto assets such as BTC and others will be very difficult or not even possible.

and in my opinion, either the government or financial institutions need to prepare an emergency mitigation plan to maintain financial stability before it happens and simulate it first because it is included in the extraordinary event category and the winner is the one who has the gold.

I'd love to be enlightened better on why it can be impossible that the internet can never be permanently shutdown, having in mind the shortcomings that I've mentioned?

Under normal conditions it is impossible for the internet to stop because the need for internet has almost become a primary need. You don't need to worry, if a problem occurs that causes the internet to shut down globally, many people will try to turn it back on.

But let's imagine the worst thing that happens, the internet shuts down completely due to natural factors that are getting worse. Humans will continue to struggle to survive because with or without the internet everything will be fine, even though it may be difficult at first

Correct and of course gradual. But, that will happen one day and it's not a bedtime story, that is, it feels like going back to ancient times where the financial transaction system used a barter system, whether in our time or our grandchildren will experience that. Earth's cycle.

[Faisal2202]

Some few days back when the forum went down for some hours, some thoughts that I used to have suddenly resurfaced in my mind. What if the internet crashes permanently!  If for any reasons whether natural or manmade the internet suddenly stops working,, what will happen in the world. Unimaginable pandemonium is what will happen, because almost everything is connected to the internet, in fact the world today is so dependant on the internet to transact and communicate almost everything. Be it in finance, telecom, marketing and in every areas of technological advancements, all depends on the internet. It'll seem as if we've suddenly gone back to the stone age, if these where to happen.

It seems to be impossible for shutting down of internet from all over the world at once, but it is possible for it to shut down in a country. Like it shut down 2 time in this year. And we was not able to make any transaction either they are from banking apps or from BTC or cryptocurrency apps. We were totally off-grid and only relying on the money that we had in our banks.

The internet coverage was down for like 4 days, and everything was total disaster, the life slowed down, as a student I face a lot of problems, in the creation of my assignments, etc. I realize at that time, internet has become a catalyze of our life which increase the rate of it.

We all are really so dependent on the internet either for financial purposes or others.

I'll focus on finance, so I'm thinking what will happen to the bitcoin inside wallets, what will happen to every fiat currency in bank accounts, if everything erases as a result of internet total breakdown? Who do we hold responsible? I know that the internet technology is manmade, therefore it can not be hundred percent immune to faults and external attacks. And what if there is that less than one chance of it being faulty or compromised, what if that less than one  chance happens,? what will be the fate of the world that mainly depends on it to get things done? I'm no tech guru or a prophet of doom, but this are my thoughts and fears on the matter, although I sincerely hope that I'm very wrong on these thoughts.

Your concerns are legit, but you have to understand that BTC blockchain is totally decentralized, and those who are validators/nodes downloaded the full blockchain in there computers and synchronize there downloaded blockchain with the overall BTC network. And when one TX is made then it is inserted into the network and then updated on all the nodes and then validated and processed by the miner or validators. Then added to the blockchain. Well, if internet goes down, the synchronization will stop, and no one would be able to make any transaction. As we know each TX need specific confirmation and without them TX cannot be confirmed. I hope now you understand it.

[hd49728]

I'd love to be enlightened better on why it can be impossible that the internet can never be permanently shutdown, having in mind the shortcomings that I've mentioned?

Cable Internet providers can be easily stopped and we witnessed it with the Russia invasion to Ukraine.

Satellite Internet supply is harder to stop but it's true companies provide Satellite Internet is centralized and they can be manipulated by governments or the company owners.

Without Internet, your Bitcoin is still on its blockchain. It's only you can not move your bitcoins at that moment but you can do it when the Internet is revived again and nodes, miners still are ready to back to work.

[SatoPrincess]

Unless we are attacked by aliens, there is no way the internet all over the world is going to shut down. The forum can shut down, social media platforms, Facebook, tiktok need maintenance and often times may have a glitch but that doesn’t mean the internet will shut down. There’s been similar threads in the past, I listed some for you to follow up and add to what’s being said here. I asked the question before when the Russia- Ukraine war was heated, so I understand your concerns.
What will happen to Bitcoin Network if the internet shuts down?
Can you think second if crypto without internets? Impossible right.
Suggestion

[Huppercase]

Some few days back when the forum went down for some hours, some thoughts that I used to have suddenly resurfaced in my mind. What if the internet crashes permanently!  If for any reasons whether natural or manmade the internet suddenly stops working,, what will happen in the world. Unimaginable pandemonium is what will happen, because almost everything is connected to the internet, in fact the world today is so dependant on the internet to transact and communicate almost everything. Be it in finance, telecom, marketing and in every areas of technological advancements, all depends on the internet. It'll seem as if we've suddenly gone back to the stone age, if these where to happen.

Theymos has already addressed that in one of the thread earlier on why the forum keeps going up and down which is always a server down issue.
What you need to understand first is how the internet work. For internet to stop working completely, it means all the communication between the earth and the airspace will stop completely and if that should eventually happen, that means we are going back to the 80s and 70s when there was not internet. However, that is not going to happen, if Isreal shut down their internet today because of war, the rest of the world will continue to use the internet because they don't control other air space, their power is only limited to their country and perhaps some neigbouring countries. So, that is how the internet work.

There are alternatives today even if internet are shutdown, Elon Musk Starlink works anywhere around the world, you need your internet protocol for it to work once you properly installed it. There are also some decentralized internet on the web were you can use internet without any interruption, so chill.

I'll focus on finance, so I'm thinking what will happen to the bitcoin inside wallets, what will happen to every fiat currency in bank accounts, if everything erases as a result of internet total breakdown? Who do we hold responsible? I know that the internet technology is manmade, therefore it can not be hundred percent immune to faults and external attacks. And what if there is that less than one chance of it being faulty or compromised, what if that less than one  chance happens,? what will be the fate of the world that mainly depends on it to get things done? I'm no tech guru or a prophet of doom, but this are my thoughts and fears on the matter, although I sincerely hope that I'm very wrong on these thoughts.

I'd love to be enlightened better on why it can be impossible that the internet can never be permanently shutdown, having in mind the shortcomings that I've mentioned?

If internet should shut down today, it only stop the computer froms communicating 0 and 1, and they stop right there where the internet was shutdown, if turn back on, nothing will be lost, they will continue from where they stop.
Your assumptions are fictionals, don't think such attack is possible. I think it is because of this kind of possible attack they didn't allow internet to be control by a single country, they made it simple to use and no disturb from other people.

[BlackHatCoiner]

It'd be disastrous, and to be frank, Bitcoin would be one of my least concerns. From the top of my head:

- Instantaneous global communication would cease, which would slow down everything.
- Banking transactions would not be possible because the banking application wouldn't be able to query the banking database. That means incapability of cashing out from your bank account either, as ATMs use the Internet.
- Every business which exists digitally would go bankrupt, completely disrupting the economy. Few of the businesses with physical representation would survive.
- Healthcare services such as health monitoring would be disrupted.
- Smart devices like smartphones, security cameras, smart cars etc., would be compromised and render useless.

By the way. Everybody would go nuts.

[Asiska02]

I'd love to be enlightened better on why it can be impossible that the internet can never be permanently shutdown, having in mind the shortcomings that I've mentioned?

This is something imaginable but can never be possible in this age. The internet have developed so far that it cannot be compromised that will lead to the shutdown totally. Before reaching this stage, every possible scenario or case that will lead to the total shutdown of the internet has been put under control and if any will occur in the future, it won’t take long before everything will be restored back. It is okay to have such imaginations but the shutdown of internet won’t take us back to the Stone Age. The eagerness to get back to the internet age will provide fast solutions to this if it ever happens, which is most likely not going to happen because it will be very disastrous if it happens even for a day.

[mvdheuvel1983]

I'd love to be enlightened better on why it can be impossible that the internet can never be permanently shutdown, having in mind the shortcomings that I've mentioned?

As for bitcoin, The Blockstream Satellite network is one of the solutions that to the event that the internet goes down.

This is directly from their website. The Blockstream Satellite network broadcasts the Bitcoin blockchain around the world 24/7 for free, protecting against network interruptions and providing areas without reliable internet connections with the opportunity to use Bitcoin.

Blockstream Satellite ground stations, known as 'teleports,' participate in the Bitcoin network and transmit blocks to geosynchronous satellites.Blockstream Satellite teleports and broadcast it across a wide portion of the Earth. Anyone in the coverage area with a small satellite antenna and an inexpensive USB receiver can receive these blocks and ensure that their node is always in sync. It provides privacy too for your IP address.

You can read it here - https://blockstream.com/satellite/

[Stalker22]

It'll seem as if we've suddenly gone back to the stone age, if these where to happen.

No, we would not go back to the stone age! There were still (depending on where you live) Bronze Age, Iron Age, Medieval period, Post-Medieval period, Industrial/Modern Age... So, you could argue that we might regress to the Industrial/Modern Age, but that would not be accurate either because the knowledge would still be around. Just because something suddenly stops working does not mean we cannot rebuild it. Think of it this way, if electric cars suddenly stopped working, would that mean humans never invented the wheel?

I'll focus on finance, so I'm thinking what will happen to the bitcoin inside wallets, what will happen to every fiat currency in bank accounts, if everything erases as a result of internet total breakdown?

If the internet were to stop working globally, Bitcoin would still exist on the Blockchain in individual nodes. The nodes would temporarily lose the ability to chat with each other, but theyd still have all the data stored up. The devs would have to find a new way to establish communication again, and it doesnt necessarily have to be over the internet. As for the banks, it would be more complicated because we do not know their internal organization. Nevertheless, the databases would still be stored on the servers, but they could not make no transactions or nothing.

Who do we hold responsible? I know that the internet technology is manmade, therefore it can not be hundred percent immune to faults and external attacks. And what if there is that less than one chance of it being faulty or compromised, what if that less than one  chance happens,? what will be the fate of the world that mainly depends on it to get things done? I'm no tech guru or a prophet of doom, but this are my thoughts and fears on the matter, although I sincerely hope that I'm very wrong on these thoughts.

I'd love to be enlightened better on why it can be impossible that the internet can never be permanently shutdown, having in mind the shortcomings that I've mentioned?

What shortcomings? Well the internet is not perfect, but it is designed to be pretty resilient. Theres a crap ton of experts and smart folks out there working to keep it running. and even if there are hiccups here and there, they usually find a way to keep things going.

[Kelward]

Unless we are attacked by aliens, there is no way the internet all over the world is going to shut down. The forum can shut down, social media platforms, Facebook, tiktok need maintenance and often times may have a glitch but that doesn’t mean the internet will shut down. There’s been similar threads in the past, I listed some for you to follow up and add to what’s being said here. I asked the question before when the Russia- Ukraine war was heated, so I understand your concerns.
What will happen to Bitcoin Network if the internet shuts down?
Can you think second if crypto without internets? Impossible right.
Suggestion

Your answers and links coupled with most of the posts on this topic so far are very comforting, because it shows the faith that the internet can not be shut down indefinitely in every part of the world. However one can't help but sometimes imagine the possibilities of the internet crashing without  a solution, because of our dependant on it in this computerized age. There's hardly anything that you want to do in this present age that doesn't require going through the internet. So despite my belief that anything manmade can damage or be compromised, i still have a deeper believe that the internet can be an exception.

[ZAINmalik75]

Unless we are attacked by aliens, there is no way the internet all over the world is going to shut down. The forum can shut down, social media platforms, Facebook, tiktok need maintenance and often times may have a glitch but that doesn’t mean the internet will shut down. There’s been similar threads in the past, I listed some for you to follow up and add to what’s being said here. I asked the question before when the Russia- Ukraine war was heated, so I understand your concerns.

Of course, because we are not connected by satellites instead we are connected by submerged wires, by submerged I mean the wire, under the sea connecting the countries. At first, I also thought that, if all the satellites will go down then we were doomed, as we could not make any TX or use the Internet. But then after researching it.

I came to realize that, we are not connected with other countries with satellites, we share the internet with other countries through wires coming from one country to another.

It was shocking for me, and it solved some confusion I had in my mind. Well, the Internet can also have glitches like the Social media you mentioned above, but not at a global level, because we also faced a huge lockdown of the Internet which affected my life greatly and also helped me to understand the importance of the Internet for us.

When there was no Internet in our country, I came to realize that, the production was so much just due to the internet and when it shut down, life became slower and everything took a huge time.

[edmundduke]

Some few days back when the forum went down for some hours, some thoughts that I used to have suddenly resurfaced in my mind. What if the internet crashes permanently!  If for any reasons whether natural or manmade the internet suddenly stops working,, what will happen in the world. Unimaginable pandemonium is what will happen, because almost everything is connected to the internet, in fact the world today is so dependant on the internet to transact and communicate almost everything. Be it in finance, telecom, marketing and in every areas of technological advancements, all depends on the internet. It'll seem as if we've suddenly gone back to the stone age, if these where to happen.

I'll focus on finance, so I'm thinking what will happen to the bitcoin inside wallets, what will happen to every fiat currency in bank accounts, if everything erases as a result of internet total breakdown? Who do we hold responsible? I know that the internet technology is manmade, therefore it can not be hundred percent immune to faults and external attacks. And what if there is that less than one chance of it being faulty or compromised, what if that less than one  chance happens,? what will be the fate of the world that mainly depends on it to get things done? I'm no tech guru or a prophet of doom, but this are my thoughts and fears on the matter, although I sincerely hope that I'm very wrong on these thoughts.

I'd love to be enlightened better on why it can be impossible that the internet can never be permanently shutdown, having in mind the shortcomings that I've mentioned?

If the internet permanently shuts down for some reason then its pretty safe to assume you wont need to worrie about most of the things you listed as its quite safe to assume it would be because of teh aftermath of nuclear war or emp. The only issue you will be pondering is where to get food and water if you survived. Also how to escape teh fallout
So dont worrie about the finances

[cryptosize]

Impossibru:

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/h-bomb-and-the-internet

Internet is the first decentralized network (minus the DNS Root servers). Bitcoin is the second decentralized network.

Maybe a massive solar flare could shut it down for a few years...

[promise444c5]

Impossibru:

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/h-bomb-and-the-internet

Internet is the first decentralized network (minus the DNS Root servers). Bitcoin is the second decentralized network.

Maybe a massive solar flare could shut it down for a few years...

That's just it!, just an illusion of thoughts that can never be born , else there's massive destructions involving the whole continent  at large which is still having a less perc. to be considered I guess