Topic: Would Bitcoin Survive A Nuclear War? - page 2. (Read 1141 times)

I think no because if a nuclear bomb hits, it would create nuclear dust, which would prevent people from using solar energy, and there would be further shortages of energy as a result. The biggest problem with Bitcoin itself is that it uses a Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism, which consumes a huge amount of energy.

There was an article about what would be worth 'money' after 'the end of the world' and it did have some interesting conclusions.

Gold, silver and a bunch of 'precious' metals would become just about worthless.

Copper would be worth a lot since if anyone could get some form of power generation working copper wire works best and lasts a really long time.

Iron and Steel would be worth something for shelter construction, but since there is so much of it not a lot

Rhodium, titanium and such would skyrocket in value for a bit. But once all the tech needed to work it died it would drop off.

Bitcoin, credit cards, anything that needs tech to work becomes worthless.

Flammable gasses are valuable. As in some of the most valuable after the end of the world.

Gasoline / Petrol in general becomes worth a lot quickly, but unlike 'Mad Max World' falls in value just as quickly.

Clean water would be valuable for a while, but as people migrated to where it's sources are it drops.

-Dave

Since currencies were popular from the earliest times I doubt that idea of money will become unuseful even in case of a global catastrophe. Bitcoin can be too complicated for usage and existing fiat currencies too insignificant but something like money cowry will be used anyway as it is very convenient to have a unified equivalent.

if the whole wide world gets destroyed, the air and the whole surroundings are contaminated of radiations and other chemical that came from the blasts. what's the point of Bitcoin and other currency. For sure if there are stores that survives the nuclear war, it will be stolen by people and the owner of it can't stop those hungry people from getting the food. Survivors would be back to the traditional way of getting food, building houses, making fire, and other survival skills that are needed.

Any type of currency or even Bitcoin will be forgotten for some time before people would start to use it again if we are going to survive the nuclear war if it ever happens in the future (let's hope not).

Well I totally agree with you --it is a common necessity that humans looking after there is a disastrous effect and perhaps no one will have an interest in digital currency or even fiat at that time does not have value --the most important is food supplies and medications for the disaster. It could be back to traditional trading of commodities if this will happen. But I won't scratch my head thinking about this which is a rare case or impossible to happen. It is indeed bitcoin will perhaps useful if there is an internet connection restored.

If this happens, then not only bitcoin will lose its value, but most likely fiat money and maybe even gold will lose their original value, it will depend on the damage that will be done to the planet. But in general, I agree with the previous posts, the values for people will be completely different, these are food, clean water, medicines, warm housing, everything else will not be important.

To put it simple, people would mind surving and living more than anything else. During a war, monetary systems or money itself will be useless because a total havoc is more likely to occur. This includes Bitcoin and other virtual currency. It will remain on your wallet but it would more likely have no value because there won't be a demand on it. So it will just be something of an amount which would be useless during those times, which I hope won't happen in the future. The market and economy will recover but expect that after a war, there would be years before majority of destroyed establishments be restored.

What would you be purchasing with your bitcoin following a nuclear disaster and who would be interested in taking it?

Let's forget the millions of casualties from the explosions, and the millions who will die in the aftermaths. The disastrous effects on internet, electricity grids, and telecommunications would leave you with no way to access your coins. The survivors would be looking for clean water, food, clothes, and medicine in a world that is poisoned by nuclear radiation. These things will gain in value and become the means of exchange and not a digital currency that requires internet (that does no longer work) and devices like computers or phones (that no longer work without electricity). It would be a surprising new world learning that your huge 4K TV with an OLED screen is now worth just a bottle of 1 liter of fresh water.     

it is clear that in a war situation there will be many obstacles that will be ahead, it is certain that everyone will no longer think about bitcoin and everything, because everyone will be focused on the war. not yet with the possibility that the internet network also cannot run normally and there will be no transactions or anything to be able to make bitcoin transactions.
obviously any war will affect bitcoin especially if it comes to using nuclear which will obviously destroy world civilization and where there are bitcoins in it, everything will disappear from the face of the earth.

Current state of affairs is definitely not so inspiring but I doubt that a total nuclear war is going to be: there are many safety systems aimed to prevent this. What we are worried about at the moment is a local usage of nuclear arms and effects from it. And it is really terrifying. Hope this will never happen.

So nuclear war can be not only total (hope none will happen) and effects on Bitcoin will differ basing on the problem. In the worst case humanity will be gone but some copies of Bitcoin will be saved and so Bitcoin can even see out all humanity. It will lost its utility but still will exist.

The question was, would bitcoin survive a nuclear war? And Nick Szabo and Ralph Merkle stated that it would. And I agree that bitcoin will, because bitcoin is a coded system that does not just die or gets wiped out or erased all of a sudden becasue that's not how it was designed. And if a nuclear war happens -- let's all pray that it won't come to that -- if a nuclear war happens, there are still parts of the world that will have srvers running and computers running, so access and use of cybernetics and the internet will continue.

I think that was what Ralph Merkle was meaning to say. It's all theoretical. And unless everything on earth gets wiped out by the war, meaning even those flying war jets, subs, and operating nuclear armaments -- which by the way are now all using gps, satellites, and involve use of the net, then theoretically, everything will be off but the code and system will still be there and if by some miracle, survivors surface then the moment they turn on servers and computers, will the bitcoin protocol go live again.

The next question then is that would anyone use bitcoin when basic necessities like food and water and maybe fuel, become scarce and expensive? Will currencies even be important during those times? Maybe after a period of healing, and trade begins to flourish again then maybe bitcoin will be usable again... and so, bitcoin will still survive

It all depends on what type of nuclear war we have. There’s a huge difference between a small and large scale nuclear war. It’s possible only one or two nukes are shot and everyone then comes to their senses, but it’s also possible (and in my opinion, more likely) that the it’s a much more fierce nuclear war, which then could easily dispel all life forever. So obviously bitcoin wouldn’t survive lol.

Bitcoin will survive, but not many people will use it. In times of war, the first thing that comes into mind are life necessities such as food, water, and shelter. Money is out of the picture. You can bet a nuclear disaster would reduce the number of nodes on the BTC blockchain (effectively making it less secure against external attacks). I suppose we're close to seeing a full-scale nuclear war (WW3?), especially when Putin have been threating Ukraine to use nuclear weapons against it (although he has soften its stance lately).

It's a dangerous world we're living today, where anything can happen in a blink of an eye. We should enjoy Bitcoin while it lasts. Who knows how many years (or months) do we have left before the whole human race goes extinct because of a large-scale nuclear war? Just my opinion

You may be will surprise but no wars are beneficial for humankind so there are some other reasons for them always, most are not really wise. If we talk about nuclear war it is totally mad, but we know there are mad people in society. So some insane things do unfortunately happen.

Bitcoin itself will survive as while at least one copy of its ledger exists Bitcoin exists. So main question is if a society will be advanced enough to have need and opportunity to use it and there might be many variations.

If a nuclear war really comes, what we should consider is whether we can still live? Will there still be a country at that time? Whether there will be human beings is a question, but I think at least there will be no nuclear war in the few decades we are alive Because although there is a war at present, it has not reached a very large-scale war, and human beings have not formally contacted alien civilizations, and cannot immigrate to other planets, so what is the benefit of launching a nuclear war now?

In the event of a nuclear war, many places would be razed to the ground. Survival was a big issue back then, and no one cared if the price of Bitcoin went up or down.
We had to think too much, and Bitcoin didn't seem so important at that time.

First of all, there are two situations, one is whether a nuclear war destroys part of mankind or destroys all mankind. The birth of Bitcoin is based on a financial revolution when mankind has reached a certain stage of development. If only some people survive and finance is still developing, then Bitcoin still has the meaning of existence, but if there is no human being, then Bitcoin has no meaning of existence.

I think many people will think that society will recover eventually, so diamonds etc will keep their value. Money will be replaced by new currency, so money will of course be worthless.
Same goes for bullets and guns. If there is really a war, the military will make these available everywhere for basically free.

I believe that nuclear war is not an absolute factor to destroy Bitcoin. Of course, if such an extreme situation occurs, human beings will disappear. Bitcoin is for human beings, so its existence is meaningless. I am also very puzzled, why There are such doubts. If it is because the current market sentiment is depressed and you can't find the direction? Or because of a loss of confidence in Bitcoin. Don't stress too much. In the world of digital currencies, this is all normal.

That's an excellent question. A full-scale nuclear war would disrupt the Bitcoin blockchain so badly, that only a small number of nodes and miners will remain online. By that time, people will be thinking on how to survive instead of hoarding currencies or investing in risky assets such as Bitcoin or Gold. Why would you care about Bitcoin when humanity would be at the risk of extinction?

I'd say a nuclear war would be inevitable due to rising geopolitical tensions all around the world. There are many countries with a huge nuclear arsenal at their disposal, ready to fire at will. When will that happen (WW3?) is an excellent question. I just hope the conflict between Ukraine and Russia comes to an end, otherwise things will only get worse in the long run. Who knows if there's a dark future ahead of us? Just my thoughts