Research Report

Seven internet cables were cut at once — Bitcoin barely noticed, but researchers found a real chokepoint

A recent study analyzing 11 years of Bitcoin network data and 68 cable fault events reveals that submarine cable failures have a negligible impact on the network's stability and price, contradicting common fears. While physical cable cuts pose minimal risk, the research highlights that targeted disruptions to major hosting providers (like AWS, Google Cloud, Hetzner) could impact a significant portion of Bitcoin nodes with as little as 5% capacity removal. The increasing adoption of Tor by Bitcoin nodes, driven by past censorship events like China's mining ban, has inadvertently strengthened the network's resilience against coordinated infrastructure attacks. Bitcoin's network topology has evolved to become more robust due to regulatory pressures and self-organization, demonstrating graceful degradation rather than catastrophic failure under stress.