Most of us have heard of photo voltaic storms, but it surely’s straightforward to underestimate what a really highly effective one can do. Throughout a serious photo voltaic eruption, the Solar can blast Earth with a surge of charged particles and electromagnetic power robust sufficient to bend our magnetic subject and push undesirable electrical currents via lengthy energy traces. Probably the most dramatic instance we all know of is the Carrington Occasion of 1859: telegraph techniques sparked and failed throughout continents, tools burned, and vivid auroras appeared in locations the place they need to by no means be seen. Trendy analysis suggests {that a} comparable occasion immediately can be much more disruptive, damaging components of {the electrical} grid, knocking out communication techniques, and leaving complete areas immediately and silently offline.
Now think about what such a shock would imply for Bitcoin.
If a Carrington-scale storm took down a big portion of the worldwide electrical energy and communication infrastructure, a large share of miners might disappear from the community on the similar second. Image a state of affairs the place about 80% of the hashrate vanishes immediately. Blocks wouldn’t cease, however they might arrive far much less incessantly whereas the community slowly stabilizes and problem adjusts to the brand new actuality.
This raises a number of intriguing questions. What precisely occurs throughout this slow-block interval? How sturdy is the system if, on prime of a hashrate collapse, components of the world turn into briefly remoted and proceed mining their very own model of the chain? And the deeper query: is Bitcoin designed to outlive an occasion the place the overwhelming majority of its mining energy goes darkish with out warning?
My intention is solely to know how the protocol behaves below such an excessive but bodily believable state of affairs, and whether or not clearer explanations or steerage might assist node operators and miners navigate it.
Thanks prematurely to your ideas.
