Have you ever wondered if the Bitcoin network (BTC) can be used without the Internet ? We will see in this article that the answer is yes. In addition to satellites, Bitcoin could in theory use other modes of communication
Source: @leserieux

While waiting for the Moon, Bitcoin is already in space
Neil Woodfine, Marketing Director of Blockstream, recently gave a talk in Switzerland on the possibility of doing Bitcoin transactions offline, i.e. without the Internet.

Neil Woodfine begins by explaining that "a surprising number of great engineers have been thinking about how to keep Bitcoin working in offline environments."

In a series of tweets covering the essential elements of his conference, Neil Woodfine explains that transactions on Bitcoin can already be transmitted by satellite :

"[The service] Blockstream Satellite makes it possible to transmit the data of the Blockchain Bitcoin throughout the world via four geostationary satellites around the Earth ( ... )".

Bitcoin on the radio ?

Outside areas covered by the Internet or satellites, another form of transmission imaginable for Bitcoin would be ... radio waves !

Although it may seem archaic, this method has already been invented by the very serious cryptographer Nick Szabo. The computer expert here refers to high frequency low signal radio waves with a range of 500 to 600 km.

It should be noted here that increasing the resilience to Bitcoin network censorship is another important aspect of being able to perform such transactions on the BTC network without direct access to the Internet. Attention however, minors of the consensus by work proof (PoW) of Bitcoin must still, in finality, process these transactions via Internet currently.

But if the Internet were to become inoperable on the entire planet, we would probably have other more priority problems... but admit that sending BTC's by satellite, or perhaps one day by radio wave, is still classy !

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