Most of us have heard of solar storms, but it’s easy to underestimate what a really powerful solar storm can do. In a major solar explosion, the sun could blast Earth with a surge of charged particles and electromagnetic energy powerful enough to bend magnetic fields and send unnecessary currents through long power lines. The most dramatic example we know of is the Carrington case of 1859. Telegraph systems sparked and malfunctioned across the continent, equipment caught fire, and brilliant aurora borealis appeared in places they should never have been seen. New research suggests that if a similar event were to occur today, it would be far more devastating, damaging parts of the power grid, crippled communications systems, and taken entire regions suddenly and silently offline.
Imagine what such a shock could mean for Bitcoin.
If a storm the size of Carrington were to destroy much of the world’s power and communications infrastructure, a large proportion of miners could disappear from the network at the same time. Imagine a scenario where around 80% of the hashrate disappears instantly. Blocks will not stop, but they will arrive much less frequently while the network gradually stabilizes and the difficulties adapt to the new reality.
This raises some interesting questions. What exactly will happen during this slow block period? In addition to a hashrate collapse, how robust will the system be if parts of the world temporarily become isolated and continue mining their own versions of the chain? And the deeper question is: Is Bitcoin designed to withstand an event in which a large portion of its mining power disappears without warning?
My aim is simply to understand how the protocol behaves under such extreme but physically plausible scenarios, and whether clearer explanations and guidance could help node operators and miners navigate the protocol.
Thank you for your feedback.
Discover more from Earlybirds Invest
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
