What Happens If the Internet Goes Down? Crypto Resilience Explained

Bitcoin disbelievers will tell you almost anything to dissuade you from buying the cryptocurrency, but the truth remains—if the internet goes down, what happens to Bitcoin?

Although the internet going down would cause issues in the cryptocurrency world, it would also cause issues in numerous other industries as well. But still, we will play along, so keep reading for a look at what could happen to crypto if the internet goes down.

Will the Internet Ever Go Down?

Before we dive into what happens to Bitcoin with the internet, first we need to establish the likelihood of the entire internet going down—and let me tell you, it’s not THAT likely.

Remember, the internet isn’t just one computer; rather, it is a network of computers around the world. There are so many different servers in so many different countries, it is statistically unlikely that the entire internet would go down, even if World War III is imminent.

Even if several large countries go to war, we sincerely doubt every country will be bombing every other country—it’s just not statistically possible and there aren’t enough bombs for that. Additionally, everywhere would have to be bombed in every country, and at that point, we have far more issues than just not having internet, as we will likely all be dead anyway.

Honestly, when countries bomb other countries, they typically aim for a large metropolis or military installations, and while some of these may house some internet servers, they are just a portion of the internet, and it is unlikely the entire thing will go down.

What Happens to Bitcoin Without Internet?

As mentioned above, we sincerely doubt the internet will go down, but let’s play devil’s advocate for a moment and say it does—well, Bitcoin is somewhat in trouble, but still should survive.

Bitcoin runs on a series of over 66,000 nodes worldwide, and these nodes store the historical data that is Bitcoin. The good news is, if one nation is bombed and some (100) nodes are lost, the full ledger is stored on the other 65,900 nodes so Bitcoin will still function as normal.

In fact, as long as three nodes survive (one for storage and the other two for consensus), Bitcoin is just fine. Of course, we would prefer there be more than three nodes, but as long as there are 3, there is nothing to worry about. This means that unless over 65,997 nodes are destroyed, you truly have nothing to worry about. And seeing how spread out these nodes are, some of which are located in very remote locations, it is unlikely there will ever be an internet or global issue large enough to affect Bitcoin.

For educational purposes, here is a breakdown of countries and the approximate number of nodes each contains. While this list isn’t exact, it can give you an idea of just how large Bitcoin is.

Country	Approx. # of Nodes	Approx. % of Nodes Worldwide
United States	15,472	30%
Germany	6,942	13%
Canada	2,803	5%
France	2,070	4%
United Kingdom	1,897	3%
Netherlands	1,752	3%
China	1,296	2%
Russia	1,232	2%
Australia	1,183	2%
Brazil	1,141	2%
Switzerland	1,132	2%
Spain	1,014	2%
Italy	954	2%
Finland	845	1%
Japan	786	1%
Singapore	598	1%
Korea	550	1%
Sweden	540	1%
Austria	516	1%

 

As you can see, there are hundreds of nodes in several countries, and we only listed the ones with over 500 nodes. This means that there are even more countries with a large number of nodes (just less than 1%). Plus, within these countries, the nodes aren’t grouped in a single area, so for large countries like China, the United States, and Canada, a lot of bombing would have to occur before all of the nodes could be eliminated with any certainty.

Not only that, but certain areas of the world have integrated blockchain into cell phone networks—meaning individuals can send BTC in the same way they send a text. While this might sound far-fetched, this is already a reality in many African countries where the internet isn’t as reliable. In these cases, the phone interacts with the blockchain via SMS instead of the internet. (Of course, this won’t help if all the nodes are down, but as we said before, that is highly unlikely.)

What if the Government Blocks the Internet?

We know there is some doomsday prepper reading this, discussing how the government of a large country could block the internet in that country—which is true, but know that the Bitcoin blockchain can be interacted with via radio waves.

No, this isn’t some far-fetched talk, Bitcoin has already been used via radio transmission and tested up to a distance of 4000 KM. Meaning, as long as radios are allowed, you are good to go.

We also should mention that even if there are temporary blocks or blackouts, any nodes that are part of the blackout simply update themselves when they go back online. So even if the US nodes went dark overnight, those nodes wouldn’t be permanently lost. They would just be unable to be used until they are back online.

What Happens to Fiat Money with No Internet?

As mentioned above, if the internet is completely gone—blocked in every country and all nodes and servers have all been destroyed, you have much worse problems than worrying about Bitcoin. Think about your fiat wallet right now, how much cash is in there? That’s all you would have seen, as modern money is mostly digital (just numbers on a screen in your banking app). What about supplies to survive without power? You might want some of those too.

So, before you start panicking about losing your bitcoin due to the apocalypse, know that you should probably start stocking up on cash and items to barter, too. Maybe that even includes a little Bitcoin. As for us, we plan to have a radio transmitter so we will be sending Bitcoin regardless of whether World War III starts tomorrow or next week. Just make sure your Bitcoin is stored in a cold wallet, and you’ll be just fine.