The Bitcoin Dilemma: Can the Internet be shutdown?

[Overman]

If Bitcoin could feasibly be made inaccessible through the shutdown of the Internet, then its value is limited. Otherwise, it should be immortal.

What does the future likely hold for Bitcoin?

[marked]

If the internet is shutdown there are more fundamental problems than the utility of bitcoin.

marked

[Raoul Duke]

Ask this guy:

[Nicotinefreek]

If the internet is shutdown there are more fundamental problems than the utility of bitcoin.

marked

Yea that is a light way to put it. Nowadays it is hard to imagine a world without internet, those images are reserved for nightmares lol

[ThePanCakeKid95]

All I can say is if the internet goes, my life is over lol Its like saying if the United States fails, wouldn't the USD be worthless ?

[Nicotinefreek]

Yea I would see a boring future ahead if there was no internet. But then again people did it before, we could do it again lol

[FreeMoney]

Yea I would see a boring future ahead if there was no internet. But then again people did it before, we could do it again lol

Not really. Once you grow into a place having it scorched doesn't put you back were you are, it puts you fucked.

Obv some people will make it, but 'we' will be fucked.

[Stephen Gornick]

Consider the attempt last year for the government of Egypt to block cross-border Internet traffic.   Sites like gmail, Youtube and CNN even were not accessible by those within Egypt.  But the traffic within the country was still functional.  Eventually the bitcoin client would find peers within the country (or helped a bit by manually specifying which peers to connect to) so all that needs to happen is for one of those nodes to connect to the rest of the internet for the blockchain to be kept current.  That could occur over dialup if nothing else.

There are other ways the Internet could survive if disruptions to massive subcomponents were to occur (e.g., if consumer access providers were to block all traffic, for instance).  Metro-wide networks built using mesh networking technologies with inter-city peering links could some day make reliance on the existing Internet infrastructure.  You wouldn't get Facebook but you could still route e-mail, transfer data files and transact using bitcoin.

Here's one approach for a quick-deploy emergency internet:
 - http://wiki.hacdc.org/index.php/Byzantium#Project_Goals

[marked]

All I can say is if the internet goes, my life is over lol Its like saying if the United States fails, wouldn't the USD be worthless ?

depends on how many trillions are stored in Iraqi and Chinese warehouses by the container load.

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[finkleshnorts]

I can picture it now in bookstores: "The Bitcoin Dilemma: How a specific paypal alternative for moonlighting libertarians will lose value of the Internet stops existing." thanks for the sig quote bro

[Gabi]

Maybe one day we will have an internet where you can only use APPS from legit stores/marketplaces. Any unofficial APP won't work.

After all, even today good luck for ifail user to get the bitcoin client APP, it keep getting removed from the APPstore and they have to jailbreak and get the korean one.

Do you remember good old days when you just downloaded and installed the software?

[finkleshnorts]

I love trolls.

[wlofgen]

Metro-wide networks built using mesh networking technologies with inter-city peering links could some day make reliance on the existing Internet infrastructure.  You wouldn't get Facebook but you could still route e-mail, transfer data files and transact using bitcoin.

This is something I wouldn't be surprised to see within the next twenty years if net-legislation continues down the path it's on.

I'm unsure whether I see that as a bad thing or a good thing.

[Matthew N. Wright]

This thread smells like Atlas.

[Raoul Duke]

This thread smells like Atlas.

eh WB Mat

[Dutch Merganser]

This thread smells like Atlas.

Yeah, runny baby shit and punk bitch tears, that's the odor.

[MoonShadow]

If the Internet is brought down as a whole on a temporary fashion, Bitcoin will just pick up right were it left off upon the reformation of the network.  There is only one way to stop the Internet long term, and that's a global nuclear war.  If that happens, your gold is worthless too.

Bullets, maybe not.

That said, even the compete destruction of the Internet does not necessarily result in the breakdown of the Bitcoin network, although it would certainly disrupt it.  If two bitcoin clients survive, and can establish a direct link to each other, then Bitcoin survives.  Many copies keep data safe, and bitcoin takes that method to an extreme.

[MoonShadow]

Metro-wide networks built using mesh networking technologies with inter-city peering links could some day make reliance on the existing Internet infrastructure.  You wouldn't get Facebook but you could still route e-mail, transfer data files and transact using bitcoin.

This is something I wouldn't be surprised to see within the next twenty years if net-legislation continues down the path it's on.

This is something that I expect to see in the next five years regardless.  It's already being done in many cities.

[Gabi]

As i said, what i fear is that the internet change and become like current smartphones, with only approved APP given on approved STORE

Or, a lot of places where you have to register accept facebook profile instead of registering a new account, next step will be accept ONLY facebook profiles.

So the internet freedom become a small niche of us nerds instead of now

[MoonShadow]

As i said, what i fear is that the internet change and become like current smartphones, with only approved APP given on approved STORE

Or, a lot of places where you have to register accept facebook profile instead of registering a new account, next step will be accept ONLY facebook profiles.

So the internet freedom become a small niche of us nerds instead of now

Such fears are based upon a fundamental lack of understanding about what the Internet actually is. 

And as for smartphones, ever heard of 'rooting'?