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Someone tried to gotcha me with "how do we use bitcoin without electricity or internet" and I sent them nostr:npub1dergggklka99wwrs92yz8wdjs952h2ux2ha2ed598ngwu9w7a6fsh9xzpc 's article here where it talks about doing SHA256 by hand https://dergigi.com/2021/08/02/implications-of-outlawing-bitcoin/

Is it really so weird to think we could do bitcoin by hand on paper? Everything used to be that way. Just because math is involved for bitcoin doesn't make it less useful on paper. It actually makes it more useful because the math can be verified. I don't think it is likely that we ever need to do bitcoin by hand but it isn't unreasonable to think we could.

Imagine the difficulty adjustment after the power goes out tho 🤣

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Discussion

TKay 2y ago

This questions probably gets asked every day on Reddit. I’m not even exaggerating.

Derek Ross 2y ago

Honestly if the world lost electricity, I don't think bitcoin would be the best currency. Ammo would probably be high up there though.

vincenzzo 2y ago

This probabaly will happen. Land to grow food or access to food trading network and Gold could help get through this period.

Jack D 2y ago

How do you verify gold without electricity or the internet?

Joel Walbert 2y ago

If we lose electricity long term from some catastrophic event, the last thing people are gonna need to be worried about is bitcoin transactions. Water food guns ammo, and if you dont have those prior to grid down, well, good luck and your bitcoin will not save you.

Gigi 2y ago

Strong calves fixes this.

#m=image%2Fjpeg&dim=1717x672&blurhash=ZFRyshD%25S4%3Fa%3Fax%5Bt6IUxv.8t7IUoLt7t7xuWVV%40%7Epj%3F%25MIVIof7NG%25LM%7BMxM%7Bxtofayj%5BRjofM%7B&x=2bf6e9514113a1eaa62f8973b8081c6f228e0b701b531818129c5ea02779c01f

Joel Walbert 2y ago

Wasnt saying its not possible, just that it wont matter. People in disaster areas arent wondering how they can get some bitcoin. They are wondering where to get food, water and shelter.

Survival Rules of 3:

3 minutes without air

3 hours without shelter

3 days without water

3 weeks without food

Bitcoin fixes none of that. And all that pedal power uses (wastes) what would be very precious calories which need to be conserved since food would be limited. Think Palestine right now. How many are in desperation to get bitcoin? I would say exactly zero as they need the previously mentioned necessities.

Max 2y ago

The difficulty adjustment is capped at 20% or so, it would take FOREVER to adjust it down sufficiently for our pen and paper speed.

Robertrobert 2y ago

Wow I never knew about the cap! Always learning something new everyday about #bitcoin .

Max 2y ago

Actually, it's limited by a factor of 4, here's the code

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/57b34599b2deb179ff1bd97ffeab91ec9f904d85/src%2Fpow.cpp#L57

Gigi 2y ago

It would only take a little longer than a decade 😜

Max 2y ago

I doubt that...

A human can do what, 1 hash / day, and there's a lot of hashes in 100s of exahash...

Gigi 2y ago

How long did it take to go from basically zero difficulty to where we are now? ;)

Max 2y ago

It's more like, how long would it take you to find 2016 blocks of the current high difficulty on pen an paper?

Then there's the first difficulty adjustment, down by maximum a factor of 4.

And again, how long would it take to find 2016 blocks of this still damn high difficulty.

Then there's the second difficulty adjustment, down by maximum a factor of 4.

There will be many adjustments before it's back down to genesis difficulty, but it would take decades, centuries?

Gigi 2y ago

Plenty of time to re-invent generators and semi-conductors! 😂

Gigi 2y ago

Electricity isn't a magic thing. Electric eels have electricity. Your brain has electricity. Saying "what if the electricity goes out" is the same as saying "what if gravity goes out". Same for the internet: connect two computers together, you have a network. Create motion between magnets and copper and you have electricity.