Hypothetical price collapse and massive farms failure.

[spazzdla]

Lets stay the price drops to.. I dunno $40(please do not debate if some epic price fall is possible, not the point of the thread)

What do you think would happen if the massive farms were forced to shutdown due to the price falling apart?
 
Besides the hashrate dropping..

[1715221995]

1715221995

[1715221995]

1715221995

[1715221995]

1715221995

[Odalv]

maybe we will be able to buy cheap asics :-)

[jertsy]

Would each confirmation take hours?

[JimboToronto]

Would each confirmation take hours?

Only until the next difficulty adjustment.

[Pecunia non olet]

Would each confirmation take hours?

Only until the next difficulty adjustment.

which takes ages for bitcoin because it has no KGW
To my knowledge it adjusts only every 14 days.

So, yes. Confirmations would take hours then - for the next 14 days at least.

A further selloff could be expected from such a situation starting another death-spiral for bitcoin. It's really good with those negative feedbackloops, isn't it?

[RyNinDaCleM]

Would each confirmation take hours?

Only until the next difficulty adjustment.

In 2011, Namecoin was driven up by high hashrate and pretty much abandoned. This caused blocks to take hours and retargets to take months. This is what sparked merged mining because if it wasn't for that, Namecoin would have been a complete failure. There is nothing higher hashrate to merge Bitcoin with. If an ASIC exodus were to happen, it may ruin Bitcoin.

[protokol]

I doubt that the confirmations would ever take hours, because the big farms simply wouldn't all switch off at the same time.

Some smaller ones might switch off after 2 or 3 days (when their power bill funds ran out), but most would keep running for at least a week or two, and survive on saved funds. Others would scale down their operation gradually. If the price were to drop to $40, there would probably be a smooth decline in hashpower lasting many months.

[BlindMayorBitcorn]

Would each confirmation take hours?

Only until the next difficulty adjustment.

That would be a wild 2 weeks!

[byronbb]

Perhaps the current price decline was manufactured by large farms for the very purpose of lowering difficulty and extending their hardware life-cycle?

[coinableS]

What do you think would happen if the massive farms were forced to shutdown due to the price falling apart?

I don't know what would happen in the grand scheme of things, but for me I would dig out my old bitmain u2s and block erupters. I would then solo mine and hope I get lucky 

[Pecunia non olet]

Perhaps the current price decline was manufactured by large farms for the very purpose of lowering difficulty and extending their hardware life-cycle?

no, i don't think so. It's built in with the inflation and also some early investors taking profits of course after 100000% profit ...

[BlindMayorBitcorn]

Perhaps the current price decline was manufactured by large farms for the very purpose of lowering difficulty and extending their hardware life-cycle?

no, i don't think so. It's built in with the inflation and also some early investors taking profits of course after 100000% profit ...

Agreed

[Muuurrrrica!]

soon it's not hypothetical anymore.

Question:
what do we do when bitcoin fails?

What is Plan B? Is there a Plan B?

[Wandererfromthenorth]

soon it's not hypothetical anymore.

Question:
what do we do when bitcoin fails?

What is Plan B? Is there a Plan B?

Hint: It starts with "R" 

[Muuurrrrica!]

soon it's not hypothetical anymore.

Question:
what do we do when bitcoin fails?

What is Plan B? Is there a Plan B?

Hint: It starts with "R"  

dogecoin? 

[RyNinDaCleM]

soon it's not hypothetical anymore.

Question:
what do we do when bitcoin fails?

What is Plan B? Is there a Plan B?

Hint: It starts with "R"  

(R)un for the exits?

Well, it just can't be Ripple... 

[MrTeal]

Would each confirmation take hours?

Only until the next difficulty adjustment.

That would be a wild 2 weeks!

It wouldn't be weeks, each difficulty readjustment period is 2016 blocks regardless of how long each block takes.

[Undermood]

there is further selloff until no one is willing to buy it! The investors will be looking for alternative altcoin as an investment instrument. Probably some other altcoin will break out and take the place of the bitcoin!

[ElectricMucus]

A massive price collapse paired with a massive miner dropout has nearly destroyed Namecoin once.

That is harder to happen with Bitcoin but it's also that much harder to recover from since there are no alternatives and simply limping to the next difficulty adjustment won't help. Namecoin went to merged mining as a solution, so if that happens to Bitcoin it has to go on over several difficulty adjustments, which may never happen if miner dropout continues.
In that case the Blockchain grinds to a halt, with months between blocks until nobody even bothers to store the Blockchain.

Most people here will claim this can never happen. 

[Pecunia non olet]

It wouldn't be weeks, each difficulty readjustment period is 2016 blocks regardless of how long each block takes.

fuck. haha

So an asic exodus would in fact mean it's done never to come back ... as difficulty adjustement will take much longer than 2 weeks - further sellofff, further dropout of hashpower and so on. In the end of it everybody stops mining because there's no sense in it ...

wait a second - does this mean any sudden and sharp drop in hashrate automatically kills bitcoin?