Ingeun Kim | ingeun92@naver.com | CURG
This article was originally written in Korean, and you can find it here !!
War Resistance
War = Destruction
Alfred Werner (journalist): Doctor, what kind of weapons do you think will be used mainly in the next World War III?
Albert Einstein: I don’t know what kind of weapons will be used in World War III. But I think I know what kind of weapons will be used in the next World War IV.
Alfred Werner: What is it?
Albert Einstein: Judging from my physical thinking, it will probably be… stones and wooden sticks.
[Albert Einstein, in an interview with Alfred Werner, a journalist from the Liberal Judaism magazine in 1949]
The above interview illustrates Einstein’s view on the destructive nature of war. Although it uses an exaggerated expression with nuclear war in mind, war inevitably involves physical destruction.
In today’s world where computers and the internet connect the globe and many tasks are handled in the digital realm, what would happen if war breaks out? Since computers are physical machines, they have no inherent resistance to physical destruction. In other words, if war causes widespread hardware destruction globally, the digital world could also be at risk.
(Although war is the main focus here, natural disasters can similarly cause physical destruction akin to war.)
Are computers, online networks, and the digital world destined to tremble helplessly in the face of war or physical destruction?
What is War Resistance?
”It’s not the strongest that survive, but those who survive are the strongest.”
[From the poem “Sorrow of the Survivors” by German poet Bertolt Brecht]
Dinosaurs, with their massive size, ruled the Mesozoic Era for 250 million years. However, they failed to adapt to the environmental changes caused by an asteroid collision and went extinct, giving way to the then smaller mammals.
This is a prime example of “it’s not the strongest that survive, but those who survive are the strongest.” Looking at this case, resisting destruction or war ultimately means survival.
Let’s expand on this concept and define war resistance as follows:
”Surviving, persisting, and being unaffected by attacks.”
While this definition of war resistance seems to apply only to living beings, we can extend its application further.
If we define war resistance as survival, then it can apply not only to living organisms but also to machines and hardware. For instance, we can say that computer systems or computer programs can “survive.”
What does survival mean for non-living entities? If a non-living entity’s characteristics or traits persist despite destruction, we can consider it survival. For a computer system, if its data or functions withstand destruction and continue to operate afterward, we can say the computer system has survived.
Fundamental Structure of Blockchain Networks
Blockchain networks fundamentally have a structure similar to a spider web, where blockchain nodes are connected in a peer-to-peer (P2P) manner.
The blockchain nodes that make up the blockchain network have two key characteristics:
- The body of the blockchain
- Part of the blockchain network
They are the body of the blockchain because all nodes possess the same blockchain data. While different types of blockchain nodes may exist for various purposes, they essentially hold the same data.
The phrase “part of the blockchain network” refers to the network perspective. While the nodes form parts of the blockchain from a data standpoint, they collectively constitute a vast blockchain network from a network perspective. This is why each blockchain network has a consensus algorithm that enables consensus among one or more interacting nodes within the network.
Hardware Characteristics of Blockchain Networks
Now that we understand the basic characteristics of blockchains, let’s explore the hardware characteristics of blockchain networks.
Blockchain networks are characterized by geographical distribution, redundancy, decentralization, and backup and recovery plans.
Geographical Distribution
- Blockchain networks operate with nodes located in different geographical regions.
- This geographical diversity makes it difficult for a physical attack to simultaneously affect the entire network.
Redundancy
- The data in blockchain network nodes is duplicated across different nodes.
- Even if one or some nodes are physically attacked, other nodes can maintain the network’s functionality and data integrity.
Decentralization
- Blockchains operate as P2P networks without a centralized server.
- This means that if a specific physical node is destroyed, the entire blockchain network does not become paralyzed and can continue operating.
Backup and Recovery Plan
- Blockchain networks have backup and recovery mechanisms.
- Regular backup of blockchain data is automatically performed on each node, allowing the network to be restored in case of physical attacks or other disasters.
Data Center vs. Blockchain Network
Let’s now compare the dinosaur-like existence of traditional data centers with the small mammal-like blockchain networks in terms of survival advantage in the current era. Based on the hardware characteristics described above, we can compare central storage systems like data centers with blockchain networks as follows:
Regular Army vs. Guerrilla Force
To metaphorically describe the comparison between data centers and blockchain networks based on their characteristics, we can liken data centers to regular armies and blockchain networks to guerrilla forces.
Regular armies are well-trained and powerful in large-scale frontal battles, but their forces are concentrated, and they operate with a centralized command, requiring substantial resources and exhibiting relatively slow mobility.
In contrast, guerrilla forces operate in decentralized, small groups, avoiding frontal battles and engaging in small-scale skirmishes. Their forces are dispersed, and they operate with a decentralized command, requiring fewer resources and exhibiting agile mobility.
While both types have their strengths and weaknesses, if an overwhelming and unavoidable external destruction occurs, the guerrilla force type is more likely to have a survival advantage.
War Scenarios
While the likelihood of these scenarios is almost non-existent, based on the content discussed so far, let’s prepare some war scenarios.
Modern War
This scenario assumes that war breaks out immediately.
- Blockchain Network: Bitcoin
- Total Number of Bitcoin Nodes Worldwide: 53,059
- Assumption: Conventional weapons used, and worst-case scenario where one conventional weapon can destroy one blockchain node
- Assuming the use of the domestic Hyunmoo missile without considering range: Approximately 1 billion won per Hyunmoo missile launch
According to the above assumptions, the cost of destroying all Bitcoin nodes worldwide would be **approximately 53.059 trillion won**.
At this point, readers may think: “Wait, doesn’t 53 trillion won seem like a relatively low cost to completely wipe out the Bitcoin network?”
Considering that Bitcoin’s market capitalization was around 1,117 trillion won as of February 6, 2024, this thought is understandable. However, this line of thinking overlooks two important points.
First, the cost of destroying nodes does not account for the cost of locating the Bitcoin nodes.
Second, if all Bitcoin nodes except one were destroyed, but the remaining node manages to transmit the blockchain data to one or more other computers before being destroyed, the entire node destruction effort becomes futile, and the cost of destroying the nodes becomes a waste.
If the rationale and cost of destruction do not strike a reasonable balance, the destruction may not be carried out. Therefore, the Bitcoin network has a high likelihood of maintaining its ability to “survive, persist, and remain unaffected by attacks.”
Future War
This is a slightly exaggerated scenario that assumes humanity has formed a world spanning star systems or galaxies in the future.
In this scenario, it is too difficult to calculate the cost aspect, so we’ll consider only the scale expansion from the modern war scenario. First, we assume that the scale expands from intercontinental to interplanetary or interstellar, with blockchain nodes located on different planets or stars. In this case, even conservatively, the resources required to destroy blockchain nodes across planets within a star system would be a multiple of the resources needed to destroy blockchain nodes across continents on Earth, equal to the number of planets involved. Therefore, it would undoubtedly be more difficult and astronomically more costly to destroy blockchain nodes than the blockchain network itself.
Here too, if the rationale and cost of destruction do not strike a reasonable balance, the destruction may not be carried out. Therefore, a particular blockchain network has a high likelihood of maintaining its ability to “survive, persist, and remain unaffected by attacks.”
Conclusion
While the flow of the article may seem erratic, the conclusion is that blockchain networks inherently possess war resistance by their very nature and know better than any other system how to “survive, persist, and remain unaffected by attacks.”
To add a final personal note, when most people think about blockchains, they typically consider coins, tokens, NFTs, DeFi, and from a technical perspective, consensus algorithms, Layer 2 scalability, and so on. While there is nothing wrong with this, it would be great to see more opinions and perspectives that shed light on the technical characteristics of blockchains from new angles. This article was written with that intention in mind.
Through the process of relating blockchains to war resistance while writing this article, I realized that when viewed from a different perspective, blockchains can have intriguing points that may not be apparent at first glance. If others have grown tired of the repetitive blockchain topics, I encourage them to occasionally view blockchains from a new perspective, as it can provide an interesting opportunity.
References
[1] https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%95%8C%EB%B2%A0%EB%A5%B4%ED%8A%B8%20%EC%95%84% EC%9D%B8%EC%8A%88%ED%83%80%EC%9D%B8
[2] https://www.etnews.com/20150512000127
[3] https://mingrammer.com/building-blockchain-in-go-part-7/
[4] https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%A0%84%EC%97%B4%EB%B3%B4%EB%B3%91
[5] https://www.donga.com/news/Culture/article/all/20230324/118511326/1
[7] https://www.thecommoditiesnews.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1981
