What happens to bitcoin when the lights go out?

Brangdon

sr. member

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Quote from: jonald_fyookball on April 06, 2014, 12:33:00 AM

Obviously bitcoin couldn't be used in normal fashion with no electricity(but
you could trade physical bitcoins, thumb drives that contain wallets,
paper wallets).

Surely thumb drives and paper wallets could be copied?

Eventually we may have battery-powered secure hardware wallets that can exchange transactions via NFC or Bluetooth. Without a network there'd be no way to confirm them, so you'd have to trust the buyer wasn't double-spending, but standard hardware wallets wouldn't generate double-spends.

ensarwyckven

newbie

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All of the needed Bitcoin data would still be secure and intact through other countries internet connections and by being stored and up to date on their websites data bases.

jonald_fyookball

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Core dev leaves me neg feedback #abuse #political

Quote from: embargar on April 06, 2014, 02:06:41 PM

We can only hope that will not happen

sarcasm?

embargar

newbie

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We can only hope that will not happen

TopherB

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Quote from: Newmine on April 06, 2014, 12:18:03 AM

Quote from: jonald_fyookball on April 06, 2014, 12:05:21 AM

Quote from: Newmine on April 05, 2014, 11:40:07 PM

In the U.S. we have had major power outages that last several days, see the NorthEast Blackout of 2003. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003
While this doesn't happen frequently, it still seems to be a problem for something that most people want to replace fiat.

How does bitcoin today benefit anyone if that happens?

Paper coins that can be printed by anyone still rely on confirmation. Otherwise rampant counterfeiting would take place and the coin would fail. Anyone else see this as a problem?

The network is completely reliant on the power being on at all times for any transaction to be confirmed. Not only power, but it must also have an internet connection. Would you say bitcoin is centralized around these two factors?

It's a global network. Non-issue.

I am not talking global scale.

You are missing my point. It doesn't matter where it happens. What does an American, Egyptian, German, Russian, Australian, Insert any country or people, do when it happens to them locally. You have no physical currency that can be traded, right? If you needed food on day 2, you couldn't buy anything from a neighbor or whoever.

I've had snowstorms where I have been stuck in my house for four days. Temporary problems are a fact of life. We soldier on.

Beliathon

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https://youtu.be/PZm8TTLR2NU

Gas generators and landlines for the win, noobs. Damn kids today, don't even know how to change the oil in their cars, let alone how to survive 3 days without Netflix and Smartphones.

BitCoinsLOL

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Quote from: Newmine on April 06, 2014, 12:18:03 AM

Quote from: jonald_fyookball on April 06, 2014, 12:05:21 AM

Quote from: Newmine on April 05, 2014, 11:40:07 PM

In the U.S. we have had major power outages that last several days, see the NorthEast Blackout of 2003. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003
While this doesn't happen frequently, it still seems to be a problem for something that most people want to replace fiat.

How does bitcoin today benefit anyone if that happens?

Paper coins that can be printed by anyone still rely on confirmation. Otherwise rampant counterfeiting would take place and the coin would fail. Anyone else see this as a problem?

The network is completely reliant on the power being on at all times for any transaction to be confirmed. Not only power, but it must also have an internet connection. Would you say bitcoin is centralized around these two factors?

It's a global network. Non-issue.

I am not talking global scale.

You are missing my point. It doesn't matter where it happens. What does an American, Egyptian, German, Russian, Australian, Insert any country or people, do when it happens to them locally. You have no physical currency that can be traded, right? If you needed food on day 2, you couldn't buy anything from a neighbor or whoever.

Who in their right mind would have all their money in BTC. The blackout wasn't that big a deal I was directly effected by it. You underestimate the resiliency of people.

zolace

sr. member

Activity: 364

Merit: 250

Well it depends where the lite goes out, I think is the whole world then it will be on pause. Unless the information gets wiped out.

Jace

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Quote from: Newmine on April 05, 2014, 11:40:07 PM

How does bitcoin today benefit anyone if that happens?

Unlike Payal, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Wire transfers, ATM machines, online banking, and pretty much ALL forms of payment nowadays that would all DIE in this event, Bitcoin simply keeps on running for the rest of the world (except the US). And that's even just temporary. As soon as the power is back, Bitcoin will catch up and everybody's happy again.

Pretty cool huh, this Bitcoin stuff!

DooMAD

legendary

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Leave no FUD unchallenged

Quote from: beatljuice on April 06, 2014, 12:49:14 AM

A lot of people don't carry cash any more. Do you think credit/debt card swipers work without power?

Sums it up pretty well. Along with the card swipers, everyone seems to forget that their bank's computers won't work without electricity and neither will the ATMs people use to get their money out. What little cash you have in your pocket is all you'll have access to and it probably won't last very long.

trc

full member

Activity: 164

Merit: 100

Revolution^TM?

Pray the nanite Gods to provide temporary power to access your cold storage.

We'd come up with ways to generate power and keep it up somehow. Solar, wind, waves... But the world's banking system would be irrecoverably damaged already. If all else fails, back to bartering I guess.

orpington

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it disappears

notbatman

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The Carrington event

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859

blacksails

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Activity: 294

Merit: 250

Quote from: Newmine on April 06, 2014, 12:18:03 AM

Quote from: jonald_fyookball on April 06, 2014, 12:05:21 AM

Quote from: Newmine on April 05, 2014, 11:40:07 PM

In the U.S. we have had major power outages that last several days, see the NorthEast Blackout of 2003. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003
While this doesn't happen frequently, it still seems to be a problem for something that most people want to replace fiat.

How does bitcoin today benefit anyone if that happens?

Paper coins that can be printed by anyone still rely on confirmation. Otherwise rampant counterfeiting would take place and the coin would fail. Anyone else see this as a problem?

The network is completely reliant on the power being on at all times for any transaction to be confirmed. Not only power, but it must also have an internet connection. Would you say bitcoin is centralized around these two factors?

It's a global network. Non-issue.

I am not talking global scale.

You are missing my point. It doesn't matter where it happens. What does an American, Egyptian, German, Russian, Australian, Insert any country or people, do when it happens to them locally. You have no physical currency that can be traded, right? If you needed food on day 2, you couldn't buy anything from a neighbor or whoever.

Interesting thoughts. I can only think of Sweden (I live there) were most people don't use cash, but charge cards.
If something like this happened here most people would run out of money in a matter of hours.

A solution to a scenario like this would be to have cash for situations like this. From a bitcoin perspective we could print out paper wallets in shape of banknotes. That would require some trusted author though, just to make sure that the private keys on them would not be stored anywhere else.

serenitys

full member