What happen if Bitcoin shutdown?

[atamism]

I am just wondering, what will happen if Bitcoin shutdown? Will the market crash? How about the effect of this to altcoins? Can government shutdown Bitcoin? I have a lot of question about this matter, because who knows, right? Also, how about hackers shutdown Bitcoin? What are your thought here? Let's discuss this.

[Nwada001]

If the father of all crypto, which most people know other currency through, is to shutdown today, can't you just predict what will be of those Altcoins? Definitely, if not all, at least mehr als 80 % of them are going to be valueless and worth nothing in the market. 
 
What if Bitcoin shut down today? This question have been asked countless time here in this forum in different form and people have given their 1 scent about the situation. 
 
If the government could be able to shut it down, don't you think they could have done it long time ago, since they can't control it. Shutting it down could have been the next option, and beside their, is there no CEO for Bitcoin that the government will go after and force the person to shutdown the system? It's a decentralized system, and there's little to almost nothing that the government can do about it. 
 
Und even if in any way the blockchain is to experience a blackout, people will suffer emotionally because billions of dollars will be going down. Some might even not be able to survive it, but after sometime life goes on, it has always been so, their has been life before bitcoin, its existence changes lot of things, but definitely society will move on.

[Churchillvv]

I am just wondering, what will happen if Bitcoin shutdown? Will the market crash? How about the effect of this to altcoins? Can government shutdown Bitcoin? I have a lot of question about this matter, because who knows, right? Also, how about hackers shutdown Bitcoin? What are your thought here? Let's discuss this.

If Bitcoin was to shutdown don't you think it would have done that long time ago? Bitcoin has lasted for over a decade and 4 years since it's use and it's has not been shutdown ever since then or even the attacks on it has never had a deep effect on it to shutdown.
Bitcoin as a paradigm shift can't in anyway shutdown because it the new way of doing things, if Bitcoin will ever shutdown it will be in hundreds of century maybe by then there must have been another evolution that might bring up something stronger.

I would have love to write multitudes of words but the first sentence  of my reply should cover everything you will want to ask.

[Odohu]

I am just wondering, what will happen if Bitcoin shutdown? Will the market crash? How about the effect of this to altcoins? Can government shutdown Bitcoin? I have a lot of question about this matter, because who knows, right? Also, how about hackers shutdown Bitcoin? What are your thought here? Let's discuss this.

If you wondered to the extend of Bitcoin shutting down as thought it was something  controlled by one entity, then you really need to go back to the basics to learn more about Bitcoin. Just as a clue, Bitcoin is decentralized and is not shutting down.

On the other aspect of your concerns, anything that happens to Bitcoin affects every other thing. The entire market is driven by Bitcoin as the leader.

[kentrolla]

Though this question has been asked in the forum multiple times but I don't wanna sound rude and wants to answer upto the point as follows:

1. Government can only ban or shutdown something which they control
2. Bitcoin is not controlled by government hence they cannot do anything to it.
3. Government can never shutdown Bitcoin because if it had capability to do it then they would have shutdown Bitcoin long time ago.
4. In worst case scenario of Bitcoin shutdown then yes Altcoins will become worthless atleast for a while post which there are chances of new beginning with new concept.

Since government cannot shutdown Bitcoin they had even doing smear campaigns and targeting exchanges to discourage people from using it.

[bayu7adi]

Although it sounds unlikely, I'm contemplating the worst case scenario...what if it's genuinely possible.

Firstly, IMO there would be panic among BTC holders and exchange platforms. The most likely scenario is that exchange platforms would freeze activities for converting BTC to other cryptocurrencies and also to fiat. It's certain that there would be a tremendous panic if BTC shutdown were indeed a fact. While they wouldn't incur losses if BTC continues to be traded, exchange platforms seem reluctant to sacrifice their reputation.

Secondly, the global economy would be slightly shaken. Yes, the current crypto market is not as vast as the stock market, commodities, bonds, and so on. This would be significant news but not a massive impact on the world, as the percentage of crypto holders worldwide has not yet reached 25%.

This forum would transform its purpose and become a nostalgic memory. Yes, BTC is no more, leaving only knowledge, and perhaps altcoins could survive in the short term. They would still lose trust over time, as there would no longer be BTC serving as the backbone of all cryptocurrencies.

[panganib999]

The market would not be available for bitcoin if it does shutdown, so people wouldn't be able to cash out any money they have on bitcoin, they wouldn't even be able to access their wallets most likely. But the panic that this would cause will create waves across the industry which will definitely cause a massive cash and perhaps may even spell death for the whole industry. Crashes and shutdowns happen all the time in the crypto industry, but in my experience here as a crypto enthusiast I have never heard of bitcoin ever experiencing a massive outage, and unless the internet goes down due to a solar storm or something along those lines I don't think the bitcoin network's due for any shutdown whatsoever, so calm your tatas.

[Mate2237]

Op your questions are not straight forward. You over lap the questions so I don't know which one to answer first. And your second question has answered the first question. Because if Bitcoin shot down definitely it will crash and you supposed to know that. The creator of Bitcoin didn't just launched Bitcoin to the internet to be crash for few years but to ever lasting.

If the altcoins network is the same with Bitcoin then it will affect the altcoins but if they are operating different Blockchain then it will not affect them. And the only part that will affect the altcoins is that the mind of the people will be affected to use the altcoins because everyone take Bitcoin has the king in the cryptocurrency and when the king died, the trust to the other altcoins will not be there again.

[Z-tight]

BTC doesn't have a single point of failure, for example you can shut down a centralized exchange or a mixer because they have a single point of failure, you simply have to seize their website, but how do you shut down BTC that is run by the community, with thousands of nodes and miners scattered all over the world.

Even if you try to control miners in a particular jurisdiction, they can move to another area that is more user-friendly and censorship resistant, the government is not going to spend money in trying to shut down a decentralized system, they can only try to 'control' it through centralized exchanges and censoring mining pools, and that is why the community has to find a solution to the current attack by certain mining pools on the BTC network.

[Upgrade00]

Since its inception around around 14 years ago Bitcoin has been up for 99.999% of the time, with a negligible downtime. The chances of Bitcoin shutting down is basically zero, and this factors in the government's intervention too.

If hypothetically Bitcoin does have a downtime it will have a very significant effect on the value of Bitcoin and the entire cryprocurrency space. Exchanges will be run over with sell offs and could temporarily halt their services, this will happen for all cryptos in the market.
The news and media will be hyped causing more fud and even more panic sales.

[Silberman]

I am just wondering, what will happen if Bitcoin shutdown? Will the market crash? How about the effect of this to altcoins? Can government shutdown Bitcoin? I have a lot of question about this matter, because who knows, right? Also, how about hackers shutdown Bitcoin? What are your thought here? Let's discuss this.

Bitcoin cannot be shutdown under normal circumstances, if bitcoin was centralized then the only thing governments will need to do is to charge the company that was behind bitcoin with criminal charges, seize the servers and it will be over, but bitcoin is decentralized which means that in order for the governments to do this they will need to do that at thousands of different locations at the same time, so do not stress too much about this as it is not possible, now if we were facing unprecedented circumstances like a natural disaster that destroyed all our technology or a world war in which nuclear weapons were used then bitcoin could be shutdown, but in that case you will have way more important things to worry about than your bitcoin.

[Jating]

I am just wondering, what will happen if Bitcoin shutdown? Will the market crash? How about the effect of this to altcoins? Can government shutdown Bitcoin? I have a lot of question about this matter, because who knows, right? Also, how about hackers shutdown Bitcoin? What are your thought here? Let's discuss this.

What do you mean, hackers can also get into our wallet, if you are talking about the 51%, it has been discussed many times already.

I will linked you to some discussions and see if for your self:

• 51% Attack And The Effects It Poses
• Bitcoin 51% attack and its effect
• 51% attack
• How does a double spend 51% attack work ? Explanation and examples.
• Unraveling the Ridiculous: Exposing the Absurdity of the 51% Power Attack FUD
• Bitcoin 51% Attack - Protocol solutions?

So Bitcoin can't be shutdown per se, and Blockchain's uptime is 99%.

[Gormicsta]

I am just wondering, what will happen if Bitcoin shutdown? Will the market crash? How about the effect of this to altcoins? Can government shutdown Bitcoin? I have a lot of question about this matter, because who knows, right? Also, how about hackers shutdown Bitcoin? What are your thought here? Let's discuss this.

Well, I don't know exactly from which angle you question is drawn from but if you're to ask me, I'd say you're asking an impossible question, the chances of Bitcoin crashing are very slim, too slim that you'll need a microscope to see it. But to answer your questions.

1. WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF BITCOIN CRASHES.

In my opinion. Just like said earlier, the chances of Bitcoin crashing are very slim because the framework of which Bitcoin was built is very solid and makes it almost impossible for Bitcoin to experience a total crash, although Bitcoin has experienced price crash in the past years, such as in 2011, 2013 and 2017, but it has always escaped a total crash and found its way back to the top again, so that's why I'm confident that it's almost impossible for Bitcoin to crash.

But however, if Bitcoin were to crash today, it would really shake the fate of Altcoins because we already know that Bitcoin remains the father of other cryptos, so the failure of Bitcoin would cause an immense amount of tension in the crypto market as other investors and would be forced to sell off their holdings.

 I also believe it would make the government have enough reasons to interfere in the crypto business  by making certain regulations to the market with excuse of protecting investors and to prevent similar crashes from occuring in time to come.

Again I feel it's going to make make investors loose confidence in other crypto projects as it would be impossible for them to go ahead and invest in other crypto projects because of the fear of the project crashing like Bitcoin, because people believe if Bitcoin can crash then other Altcoins is able to do the same so it would really affect the crypto market so badly. And of course we know that people would loose billions and trillions of dollars if Bitcoin is to crash to, which of course would send so many people and business into eternal doom, so if Bitcoin goes down, it's definitely taking a lot of people and businesses with it.

2. CAN GOVERNMENT SHUT BITCOIN DOWN?

First of all, let me point out that one of Bitcoin's super powers is being a decentralized Asset, which makes it difficult and impossible for the Government to interfere in the affairs of Bitcoin, so they lack jurisdiction or any judicial right to shut it down entirely.
 Again, even if the government of a particular country is to place a ban on Bitcoin, it would still be in use or a legal tender in other countries and lastly, the Blockchain technology that powers Bitcoin is an open source and can be replicated by anyone at anytime so even if Bitcoin is seized by the government, someone out their can still create another version of Bitcoin without breaking a sweat.

3. CAN HACKERS SHUTDOWN BITCOIN?

Well, theoretically, it's possible for hackers to hack the Bitcoin network but the chances are very slim as it's almost impossible to do so, I say this because Bitcoin is controlled by a network of nodes or computers which are distributed around the globe so for a hacker to be able to successfully hack the Bitcoin network or short it down, he'll need to take control of at least more than half of the nodes which of course we know is almost impossible. But even if the hacker succeeds to actually take control of a good number of those nodes, the Bitcoin network could still be forked and go back to using the actual Blockchain so th3 possibility of Bitcoin being hacked or shut down by hackers are technically Almost impossible.

[Russlenat]

I am just wondering, what will happen if Bitcoin shutdown? Will the market crash? How about the effect of this to altcoins? Can government shutdown Bitcoin? I have a lot of question about this matter, because who knows, right? Also, how about hackers shutdown Bitcoin? What are your thought here? Let's discuss this.

Bitcoin has a decentralized nature that cannot be controlled by a government, or any group or entity, so it cannot be easily shut down or totally stop its operation. But for altcoins as majority are centralized, well then the government might freely access them and they may force to shut down that will cause the altcoin market to collapse. But with bitcoin, no one can access bitcoin transaction without its wallet keys, so most likely, bitcoin will not be force to shut down, unless if the market itself decides to do so.

However, there's only one reason that will put bitcoin into final shutdown, and that is cutting all the internet access all over the universe, which means not only bitcoin will be affected, but the rest of the world's internet operated technologies that will definitely resort into the whole universe shutdown as well.

[SatoPrincess]

It’s been over a decade since the creation of Bitcoin and from the start Bitcoin has faced resistance from the government and yet no government or hacker has been able to ”shut down” Bitcoin. It’s impossible to do, that’s why the government use a different approach in fighting Bitcoin. They use the media to give Bitcoin a bad reputation and they use legislature to ban Bitcoin and implement as much crypto regulation as possible.

The price of altcoins follow Bitcoin, so if Bitcoin crashes so do altcoins.

[sokani]

I am just wondering, what will happen if Bitcoin shutdown? Will the market crash? How about the effect of this to altcoins? Can government shutdown Bitcoin? I have a lot of question about this matter, because who knows, right? Also, how about hackers shutdown Bitcoin? What are your thought here? Let's discuss this.

A very good question but it has been asked countless times on the forum and the answer remains the same, it's a NO! Bitcoin is an uncensored, temper-proof and decentralized protocol that cannot be controlled, manipulated or shutdown by any entity such as the government. Since it came into limelight, it has always been a threat to fiat and if the government had the power to extinguish it from the face of the earth, they would. Due to their inability to do this, they've branded it as a coin for bad actors, which is a lie.

[BenCodie]

A shutdown would mean every single person disconnects from the network....but even then, the network would just stagnate, no new blocks will be produced and difficulty will reduce(?) until a new block is mined.

The better question is, what would it look like after a shutdown, and for those rejoining after someone joins the network again.
I doubt there will ever be a stage where everyone disconnects, then only one person starts to mine it again, but if this happens then the ledger could potentially be modified and the ledger will lose its integrity. If some join gradually, they'd probably enjoy easy rewards until activity readjusts(?), and the competition would quickly grow, if I'm not wrong.

I may be wrong about difficulty adjustment.

I'd love another expert to chime in based on the above to learn more personally

[GbitG]

I am just wondering, what will happen if Bitcoin shutdown?

There is no need to be surprised; it is clear and easy that even Bitcoin cannot be shut down, because if it is shut down, blockchain technology will not be of any use. Bitcion works with the help of blockchain technology. And the second thing is that, due to the decentralized nature of Bitcoin, it cannot be damaged or shut down, but it is impossible.

Will the market crash?

The crash of the market was possible only when Bitcoin shut down. While it is not possible to shut down Bitcoin, it is decentralized, and decentralized cannot be owned and When a thing is owned, then it is possible to lead or crash it.

How about the effect of this to altcoins?

First, it is not possible. And if it is possible, when Bitcoin is no longer there, where will the rest of the altcoins come from? Because the altcoin is also supported by Bitcoin; otherwise, who considers the altcoin reliable in the presence or absence of Bitcoin?

Can government shutdown Bitcoin? I have a lot of question about this matter, because who knows, right?
~~shutdown Bitcoin? What are your thought here?

According to my opinion, there can be only one reason for Bitcoin to shut down or crash, and that is if Satoshi suddenly appears and releases the Bitcoins kept in his wallet into the market, then I think it can cause such a crash. which may be far beyond imagination. And when the price is dumped and goes to the absolute bottom, people will not be able to buy it out of panic, and the recovery of BTC will not be possible. But it is not possible to return satoshi and sell all BTC.

But these are my opinions, DYOR I could be wrong.

[JoyMarsha]

I am just wondering, what will happen if Bitcoin shutdown? Will the market crash? How about the effect of this to altcoins? Can government shutdown Bitcoin? I have a lot of question about this matter, because who knows, right? Also, how about hackers shutdown Bitcoin? What are your thought here? Let's discuss this.

One simple answer to all the questions you are stressing yourself on is bitcoin can not be shut down because of how it was created to be decentralized. Therefore, wonder no more because bitcoin ain't shutting down by anyone. That's an impossible move for any government or entity to think of no matter how powerful they think to be. The government can only shut down what's under their jurisdiction not something above theirs and they can't find or trace its owner.

The existence and exposure of bitcoin would continue to spread until the whole wide world got to know about her and trust her more than the financial banking system that controls people's money on how they spend it.

[kingvirtus09]

I am just wondering, what will happen if Bitcoin shutdown? Will the market crash? How about the effect of this to altcoins? Can government shutdown Bitcoin? I have a lot of question about this matter, because who knows, right? Also, how about hackers shutdown Bitcoin? What are your thought here? Let's discuss this.

Now you really thought about the question like that. Why did you hear that since the creation of Bitcoin, there has been a government in a country that has been able to shut down Bitcoin or hackers that have been able to shut it down? Even if you type in Google or AI, you won't find anyone who has done that.

How can you kill or destroy something if you don't control it? Go ahead and answer my question. You have a lot of questions in your mind, but have you researched properly about the matter you want to talk about here?