Blockchain's decentralization kept the crypto community running during global outages.
On July 19, members of the crypto community celebrated as blockchain networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum continued to operate smoothly amid one of the largest IT outages in history.
Despite disruptions affecting courts, healthcare providers, airlines, and other essential services, users were able to transact on crypto and blockchain networks without issue.
Jeff Garzik, former Bitcoin Core and Linux kernel developer, highlighted the contrast between the widespread outages in centralized services and the uninterrupted performance of blockchains, noting on social media: “Global IT outage: Linux, Bitcoin, and Ethereum unaffected.”
Jameson Lopp, co-founder of the Bitcoin multisignature wallet service Casa, commented on the situation, emphasizing the risks of automatic updates. “The widespread global infrastructure outages highlight why Bitcoin node software avoids automatic updates,” he said, cautioning that “Auto-updates pose systemic risks.””
Some in the community pointed to the Windows operating system as a factor in the outage, noting that blockchains’ strength lies in their operation across multiple systems.
Dr. Calle, developer of the Bitcoin wallet Cashu, recalled that Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto had initially opposed a Linux client. Bitcoin Researcher, creator of the analytics platform Bitcoin Lab, asserted that Linux continues to play a crucial role in maintaining Bitcoin’s strength and resilience, stating that “Bitcoin running on Windows/Mac ONLY would have a single point of failure.”
Though Bitcoin software was initially released for Windows in January 2009, a Linux version was introduced later that year.
According to Forbes, the outage resulted from a flawed automatic update issued to devices running CrowdStrike for Windows. CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity program designed to detect and prevent IT system exploits. The Mac and Linux versions of CrowdStrike were not affected. On July 19, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz announced that the company is working to resolve the issue and restore services.
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