The Earth’s magnetic field experiences a geomagnetic reversal periodically, which is where the north pole becomes the south pole, and the south pole becomes the north pole. This would cause compasses to point in the direction opposite to what they do today. A geomagnetic reversal does not happen all at once, it is a process which takes 1,000-10,000 years, during which time the Earth’s magnetic field becomes much weaker and also splits into several pieces. This would result in an increase of charged particles from the solar wind bombarding Earth’s surface, making geomagnetic storms far more dangerous. Since Bitcoin relies on electronics, the Bitcoin network and Bitcoin users could experience detrimental effects during a geomagnetic reversal. This article explores how Bitcoin would be impacted by a geomagnetic reversal, and the possible ways to mitigate negative effects.
There have been 183 geomagnetic reversals over the past 83 million years, yielding an average of 1 geomagnetic reversal per 450,000 years. Reversals are due to patches of iron atoms in Earth’s outer-core becoming reverse aligned, and as these patches of reverse magnetism grow stronger they weaken Earth’s overall magnetic field and then cause it to flip. Sometimes the reversal does not complete itself, resulting in a geomagnetic excursion where the Earth’s field weakens and can even briefly flip, but only for a relatively short amount of time before the field returns to normal. A geomagnetic excursion can have the same damaging effects as a full reversal for electronics and Bitcoin since it comes down to a weaker magnetic field letting in charged particles from space. Geomagnetic reversals and excursions are actually theorized to cause mass extinctions, due to all the radiation that gets to the surface due to a weaker magnetic field.
While a geomagnetic reversal sounds like something that will not happen in our lifetimes due to its long geological time scale, it appears that a geomagnetic excursion or reversal is already beginning. This makes sense since it has been 780,000 years since the last geomagnetic reversal, although, only 41,000 years since the last geomagnetic excursion. The Earth’s magnetic field has been progressively growing weaker over a large area of South America and the South Atlantic, and this is called the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA). Already, the Earth’s Van Allen belt of energized charged particles has dipped to within 200 km of the surface over the SAA, as opposed to its normal altitude of 500 km. Eventually, the SAA could strengthen and lead to a geomagnetic excursion or reversal.
The Van Allen belts would actually crash right into the surface of the Earth during a geomagnetic reversal, since there would be potential for multiple poles to develop besides the 2 poles we have today, highly distorting the magnetic field. This would pose a great danger to all electronics, including the internet and computer infrastructure which runs the Bitcoin network. Shields for Van Allen belt radiation have already been developed for satellites in low earth orbit, such as the International Space Station since they pass through the Van Allen belt when they travel through the SAA. This same sort of shielding might have to be integrated into computers, internet cables, and power cables during the future when a geomagnetic reversal happens, in order for Bitcoin to function properly.
Beyond this, geomagnetic storms would become far more severe. Even in our modern times, a strong enough geomagnetic storm could knock out power and internet for up to a billion people and causes trillions of USD of damage. This is due to currents being generated in electronic devices, and especially cables, as the local magnetic field rapidly fluctuates during a geomagnetic storm. The tropics and even most of the mid-latitudes are well protected from geomagnetic storms thanks to the Earth’s magnetic field, but during a geomagnetic reversal the Earth’s magnetic field would be much weaker and possibly split into more than 2 poles, which would allow severe geomagnetic storm effects to occur anywhere, even in the deepest parts of the tropics.
Geomagnetic storms are predictable, so a mitigation strategy to protect the Bitcoin network is to turn off electronics prone to power surges before a geomagnetic storm hits. That strategy will have to be mixed with shielding some Bitcoin full nodes around the world, to make them impregnable to geomagnetic storms, since Bitcoin will need some full nodes operating 24/7 to keep the network alive. This is as opposed to currently, where even during the strongest geomagnetic storm Bitcoin full nodes in the tropics are automatically shielded due to the Earth’s magnetic field. During a reversal, there’s no place where a Bitcoin full node will be totally safe.
Solar power to generate electricity when the power grid goes down, as well as internet cables that are well shielded, will be essential to keep Bitcoin alive during the onslaught of geomagnetic storms and Van Allen belt radiation during a geomagnetic reversal. A simple strategy could be for large Bitcoin mining farms to make an impregnable shield against external radiation and charged particles since it will be essential to keep Bitcoin mining hardware safe and online so the network remains secure, and Bitcoin miners also function as full nodes.
Follow BitcoinNews.com on Twitter: @BitcoinNewsCom
Telegram Alerts from BitcoinNews.com: https://t.me/bconews
Want to advertise or get published on BitcoinNews.com? – View our Media Kit PDF here.
Image Courtesy: Pixabay
