Topic: Can Bitcoin survive against Solar Flare? (Read 1619 times)

Well Josh Zerlan used it to buy his house, and since cockroaches are more complex creatures then him, yes they would use Bitcoin.

If a super massive CME struck the Northern Hemisphere and wiped out 75% of life on the planet, would cockroaches use Bitcoin?

The Earth has a self defense mechanism thanks to its own ferrous core.  Should the flare release enough energy to overwhelm the fields dampening capability - well then don't stand next to your toaster.  It's not an IF, but WHEN.

It did happen in 1859 called Carrington Event. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859
The chance is 12% every 10 years.

Possibly but perhaps not
It would take out most technology though but one secure node can repropigate the network again

Electricity around here for 200 years, and no solar flare yet.

It really we have 12% change of this happening by 10 years, think we should face that flare thing already some time ago

Depends how long it would take to repair the infrastructure. Someone said that after such solar flare it could take decades to rebuild the power grid. In this situation, the price will deffinitely drop, well, nobody would be able to trade, really :-)
and cash would be the only useful payment option.

If all electronics cease to be functional the least of our concerns would be Bitcoin :p

We'd pretty much have to rebuild society as we attempt to survive collective hysteria, so I'm pretty sure money in general would not be a priority.  

This is one of those things the the Bitcoin network can't really adapt to since it's out of our hands to correct.  Even a moderate flair affecting one hemisphere is enough to cause a fork and massive miner disruption.  Of course if the internet goes down Bitcoin is the last thing most people would be worried about since power, water, gas and other commodities are now gold.

a solar flare could crash the price of bitcoin down to the single digit levels, at least in my opinion. a lot of people would be wary of the technology. the last time we had one that would have wreaked havoc was in 1859.

solar flares run in 11 year cycles i believe. IIRC, the chances of a flare hitting us hard increases towards the end of the cycle. if we make it past 3 cycles, that's 33 years.. and in each cycle, there is a very small % that a sunspot/flare would occur.

then again, wired says that there is a 1 in 8 chance that it can happen by 2020, which is a pretty high probability number. that's a 12.5% chance.. damn.

http://www.wired.com/2012/02/massive-solar-flare/

But isn't the point about Bitcoin the protocol - the network, the ledger?
Everyone (or mostly everyone) is focused on the coin, but it's much, much bigger than the coin.
Many I've been listening to Andreas too much lately?

The other day, I wondered what disaster could happen to Bitcoin, similar to the destruction of the library in Alexandria?

Then, this thread popped up, along with the one about EMPs.

A free software application allows users to back up files using ordinary office stationary with a type of QR code. (2012)





Software developer Oleh Yuschukhas developed a Windows application that can turn any ordinary A4 piece of paper into a hard drive. Using a high-resolution printer, PaperBack allows users to store up to half a megabyte of data per side of paper. The program turns data in a bitmap of data matrices, where each data matrix can store 80 bytes of data.

The matrices used in PaperBack resemble QR codes, and can be read using any scanner with the TWAIN interface along with the free application. The software also comes with a built-in compression that’s optimized for text files, and the original file could still be restored even if 20 per cent of the paper has been destroyed.

http://ollydbg.de/Paperbak/

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It seems they've found a way to fit around 1 gig per page recently. I can't find that article. Forgot were I read it or who did.
Anyway I could see the block chain being on paperbackup on warehouses all over the world. Paper is still very cheap.

It may be flawed, But I look at it like this. If the internet goes down then basically bitcoin goes down. That's OK, because BTC is mostly a currency for online transactions. i don't really need it until the network is back up. If the net is down and gone forever, I assume we have far bigger problems than the economy.

I think it will destroy all electronics even which sides are you on. I found out that solar flare is different from coronal mass ejection. CME is the most dangerous. Because it will change the earth magnetic field unpredictably, making all conductor in earth electricity inductors.


Coronal mass ejection (CME) can cause serious problems for electrical systems here on Earth. During a CME, the fluctuations of the sun's magnetic fields cause a large portion of the surface of the sun to expand rapidly, ejecting billions of tons of particles out into space.

CME will produce a magnetic shockwave that extends billions of miles out into space. If Earth is in the path of that shockwave, our planet's magnetic field will react to the event. It's similar to what happens if you put a weak magnet next to a strong one. The weak magnet's field will align itself to the strong magnet's field. A magnetic shockwave from the sun could cause the alignment of the Earth's magnetic field to shift unpredictably.

The magnetic fluctuations can cause compasses to fail. And since magnetic fields can induce electricity, any conductor could become an inductor. A powerful CME could induce electricity in large, powerful conductors. That could overload electrical systems and cause massive damage.

Solar Flare isn't just an explosion of hot gases. It pushes out waves of light all across the spectrum. That includes light we can't see -- including radiation in the form of X-rays and gamma rays. If high-energy rays were to hit a satellite, they could strip electrons from the metal components, ionizing them. As electrons break free, they could short out the electronics within a satellite.

To take out Bitcoin you have to destroy all computers in the whole world. A solar flare would mainly affect one side of the planet.

Bitcoin would continue on the other side.

If what they say is right, 12 percent every 10 years could not be stated as "unlikely".

Pretty unlikely to happen but within the realm of possibility. A strong enough solar flare would definitely spell the end for Bitcoin I would think. Bitcoin would probably be the least of your worries though.

I doubt that will work, Be sure to disconnect your electronics to the grid, because solar flare will create massive electricity surge that will destroy any electronics connected to it.

Put your miner, computer and other electronics inside a Faraday cage. Stock more food, water fuel, prepare solar panels and generators.

Is there a way to build a defense against this?