Currently Russia is shutting down mobile internet because they want more control over what apps the population consumes and uses. People can no longer pay with cards or smartphones. So they can’t use Bitcoin either. In Iran, the majority of people no longer have internet access either. So they can’t use Bitcoin as well. Is its future use at risk? Because governments are realizing that the population is becoming too independent of them?
What do you think ?
Posted by Acer-freemanii
7 Comments
FUD detected.
Guess you missed the part where google just announced they can hack btc by 2029 in under 10 mins. But let’s worry about the internet.
Regulatory overreach and authoritarian suppression/oppression are genuine risks for every freedom-loving citizen in every country. You must keep a toe in the water, to have a sense of where things will be going.
In case of the internet blackout in Iran, I was wondering the same thing. The citizens of Iran are de facto prisoners in their own country.
Lightning, Strike, bitrefill, Bitcoin ATMs, individual money exchangers (and there’s a huge network of these people in the East) are a few of the ways.
Andreas mentioned it in his lecture many years ago. If you live in a totalitarian state Bitcoin would not be your main concern. Could the whole world fall into North Korean state? Obviously it is possible.
Bitcoin isn’t the issue, access is, without internet you can’t send transactions. The key factor is network access, not the protocol itself. You can look into offline or alternative broadcast methods but they’re not widely practical yet. Governments can still restrict infrastructure so usability drops even if Bitcoin keeps running. Are you thinking about payments or just holding?
To bypass internet blocks, you can already use Bitchat. This involves creating communication networks via Bluetooth.
I believe it is possible that such a network could also be used to process and verify Bitcoin transactions.