Pretty sure someone will have backup power for their internet and computers...but if something really was able to disable even that I think we would have worse problems then whether or not our bitcoins worked lol.
That someone should be your ISP, your TSP, You. 
Topic: World wide power outage (Read 4762 times)
Pretty sure someone will have backup power for their internet and computers...but if something really was able to disable even that I think we would have worse problems then whether or not our bitcoins worked lol.
Normal banks would obviously be fine in this situation.
There would be much MUCH bigger things to worry about than bitcoin collapsing if there was a worldwide power outage.
Uh, I don't mean to offend but given your previous abilities to create altcoin havok, does that mean you're about to do something to reduce difficulty by oooh, about 75%?
I don't mess with BTC.
It's a great way to get a visit from some really bad people.
~BCX~
You'd have to mess with the world wide grid. Are those people as bad as bad bitcoin people?
As far as I know, there are only national grids, not world wide power grids. But I might be wrong
Ha! Everything is run by the Illuminati, even national power grids. Shows what you know.
Uh, I don't mean to offend but given your previous abilities to create altcoin havok, does that mean you're about to do something to reduce difficulty by oooh, about 75%?
I don't mess with BTC.
It's a great way to get a visit from some really bad people.
~BCX~
You'd have to mess with the world wide grid. Are those people as bad as bad bitcoin people?
As far as I know, there are only national grids, not world wide power grids. But I might be wrong
Uh, I don't mean to offend but given your previous abilities to create altcoin havok, does that mean you're about to do something to reduce difficulty by oooh, about 75%?
I don't mess with BTC.
It's a great way to get a visit from some really bad people.
~BCX~
You'd have to mess with the world wide grid. Are those people as bad as bad bitcoin people?
Uh, I don't mean to offend but given your previous abilities to create altcoin havok, does that mean you're about to do something to reduce difficulty by oooh, about 75%?
I don't mess with BTC.
It's a great way to get a visit from some really bad people.
~BCX~
Define "mess with" ?
The longer the outage, the greater affect on the network. When everyone's nodes fired up again, all they'd notice was a long period of low hashrate (no blocks solved) which would then reduce network difficulty at the next retarget. This could reduce difficulty by up to a maximum of 75%.
tl;dr A long term world wide electricity outage would reduce the network mining difficulty by up to 75%when if the electricity got turned back on.
tl;dr A long term world wide electricity outage would reduce the network mining difficulty by up to 75%
The world as we know it would end, but network difficulty down 75% - yeah!!
I would have no issues in destroying civilization to drop diff 75%!
~BCX~
Uh, I don't mean to offend but given your previous abilities to create altcoin havok, does that mean you're about to do something to reduce difficulty by oooh, about 75%?
Haha great reading =) Anyway, I only meant in a very technical way how bitcoin network works and how much it relies on active online nodes but I think that has been answered, thanks. I totally agree that bitcoin would be least of all worries! I can recommend the movie "Aftermath: Population Zero" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1264068/.
Cool. I'm glad you are balanced and not more worried about bitcoin than "survival"
What would happen to bitcoin if the planet for some astronomically small chance got a world wide power outage for a day? Would the network and block chain survive such crash or would everything get irreversibly messed up?
It would never happen without man going back to the Stone Age.
Any catastrophe large enough to take down power on a global scale would also wipe out the majority of mankind.
Our planet has never experienced a solar flare strong enough to do it. A nuclear explosion big enough to do it would irradiate the whole earth, and I am not sure that such a device could be built. Global Nuclear war might cause a few problem but if it happened then I doubt if I would be caring if Bitcoin still worked, ditto the eruption of a super volcano.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859
Bitcoin will be your last problem that day
Sounds like the bitcoin network is impossible to kill then and will live it´s own life for a very long time; at least as long as there is a need for it. Whoever came up with that original idea must be a pure genious! As long as there is no serious "51% attack" it must mean there is at least 51% good vs. evil in the world 
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It's all fun and games until somebody loses an eye
Haha great reading =) Anyway, I only meant in a very technical way how bitcoin network works and how much it relies on active online nodes but I think that has been answered, thanks. I totally agree that bitcoin would be least of all worries! I can recommend the movie "Aftermath: Population Zero" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1264068/.
Remember that the blockchain is saved on hundreds or thousands of places around the world. If you turn off your computer and let it sit a day and then turn it back on then bitcoin starts back up just fine. Imagine if everybody happened to turn off their computers for a day - there would be a large gap between two blocks, and people waiting for confirms would be a little impatient, but it would pick back up right where it let off.
The one issue I can think of is that as people restart their systems it might take some time for the whole network to coalesce, so you might want to wait for a few extra confirmations for important transactions done right when you restart.
Haha great reading =) Anyway, I only meant in a very technical way how bitcoin network works and how much it relies on active online nodes but I think that has been answered, thanks. I totally agree that bitcoin would be least of all worries! I can recommend the movie "Aftermath: Population Zero" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1264068/.
The longer the outage, the greater affect on the network. When everyone's nodes fired up again, all they'd notice was a long period of low hashrate (no blocks solved) which would then reduce network difficulty at the next retarget. This could reduce difficulty by up to a maximum of 75%.
tl;dr A long term world wide electricity outage would reduce the network mining difficulty by up to 75%when if the electricity got turned back on.
tl;dr A long term world wide electricity outage would reduce the network mining difficulty by up to 75%
The world as we know it would end, but network difficulty down 75% - yeah!!
The longer the outage, the greater affect on the network. When everyone's nodes fired up again, all they'd notice was a long period of low hashrate (no blocks solved) which would then reduce network difficulty at the next retarget. This could reduce difficulty by up to a maximum of 75%.
tl;dr A long term world wide electricity outage would reduce the network mining difficulty by up to 75%when if the electricity got turned back on.
tl;dr A long term world wide electricity outage would reduce the network mining difficulty by up to 75%
Op id get my glock and come hide out with you, one way or another.
in case of global powerotage btc would be the last to think of. I would be more concerned with the hundreds of nuclear plants melting down because the cooling would stop. Global power outage is an extinction-event. Btc is not relevant in that scenario.
I hate nuke plants but on most the backup generators should kick on
Wish it were so but not sure it is. Backup generators (if they were not fried by a EMP/solar flare) can sustain for awhile but they need a lot of fuel. All fuel runs from and to the refineries by the grid power. One would hope the powers that be would find a way to keep them all running indefinitely but it is a leap of faith, there are a lot of them.
I live near the largest one in the US, just outside of Phoenix. Not much water so they run the city's sewage through the reactors to cool. Clever (and kind of the nastiest place on earth if you add it all up) but I can't help but think if the grid was down for a long time there is no way they could run the whole plant and the sewage pumping and everything attached to that without a weak link somewhere.
Hope we never have to find out. We are very much dependent on the grid, but elsewhere I saw a thread that they are launching cubesats for bitcoin transactions so that is a good start on redundancy.
What would happen to bitcoin if the planet for some astronomically small chance got a world wide power outage for a day? Would the network and block chain survive such crash or would everything get irreversibly messed up?
It would never happen without man going back to the Stone Age.
Any catastrophe large enough to take down power on a global scale would also wipe out the majority of mankind.
Our planet has never experienced a solar flare strong enough to do it. A nuclear explosion big enough to do it would irradiate the whole earth, and I am not sure that such a device could be built. Global Nuclear war might cause a few problem but if it happened then I doubt if I would be caring if Bitcoin still worked, ditto the eruption of a super volcano.
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