Several experts have opined on the different scenarios for bitcoin.
Nick Szabo, Ralph Merkle and other experts in the crypto ecosystem have stated several times that Bitcoin would survive a nuclear war. Of course it is something that is still impossible to verify, but the question is thrown: Is Bitcoin nuclear weapons proof?
Ralph Merkle ya dijo que:
“Si una guerra nuclear destruyera la mitad de nuestro planeta, Bitcoin seguiría vivo. Seguiría ofreciendo sus servicios. La única manera de cerrarlo es matar a todos los servidores que lo alojan. Lo cual es difícil, porque la red está en varios servidores en muchos países”.
What would happen to bitcoin in the event of a nuclear war?
Much of the attention and criticism of Bitcoin's proof-of-work system points to the "waste" it generates, as it requires the power to protect the network, which consumes more power than some not-so-small countries.
One of the first problems humanity faces in a large-scale or even medium-scale nuclear conflict is the lack of reliable power. This is not only due to a "nuclear winter", or the cooling of the Earth's atmosphere as radioactive soot escapes into the air, which would make solar power more or less useless, but also due to a worldwide shortage of equipment. and the impact of transportation.
Fossil fuel extraction, resource extraction and any immediate transportation is becoming more difficult and expensive. This means that everything will cost more and only very specific items are worth it. Once a nuclear apocalypse begins, the main concern will certainly not be protecting the Bitcoin network, especially when considering another scarce resource: food.
Nick Szabo expressed the following in 2019:
In the event of a nuclear war, any reliable power source would likely be used for more food and drinking water.
For his part, Martin Pfeiffer, an expert at the University of New Mexico, investigates the imaginaries of nuclear weapons:
“The claim that Bitcoin would survive a nuclear war and be useful in any significant sense seems ridiculous to me.”
Like the money in our pockets, large gold bars, or stocks in brokerage accounts, bitcoin will have little use in a world defined by trade and barter, a world in which food, water, Medicines and weapons are the preferred currencies. This doesn't mean that the thousands of individuals and companies mining bitcoin would instantly shut down their ASICs and kill their servers the moment a nuclear war broke out, but chances are those luxury expenses won't last long.
Given these arguments, it is puzzling why cryptocurrency experts suggest Bitcoin can survive a nuclear disaster and why some proponents recommend buying Bitcoin to prepare for one.