Afghanistan internet blackout ’a wake-up call’ for blockchain decentralization

Afghanistan’s internet blackout highlighted the need for more decentralized internet infrastructure solutions to bolster blockchain’s resistance to censorship.

Afghanistan’s recent nationwide internet outage underscored a critical weakness in the world’s leading decentralized blockchains: their dependence on centralized internet providers that remain vulnerable to government intervention and technical failures.

The country suffered a near-total internet shutdown that lasted about 48 hours before connectivity was restored on Oct. 1, Reuters reported. The disruption was reportedly ordered by the Taliban administration, though officials later blamed “technical issues” involving fiber optic cables.

While blockchains aim to provide people with a public, censorship-resistant network for value transfers, their reliance on centralized internet providers makes these use cases challenging during outages.

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