Bitcoin in a power or internet outage

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When the power or internet goes out, your bitcoin doesn’t go anywhere. It sits on a global ledger kept by thousands of computers around the world, and a local blackout doesn’t touch it. The question is whether you can still use it, and the honest answer is: partly, with preparation.

This guide explains what works offline, what doesn’t, and how to set things up so a long outage doesn’t lock you out.

Start with a reality check

In a short outage of a few hours or a few days, bitcoin won’t feed you or fuel your car. Most local shops won’t accept it, and even card machines and ATMs may be down. Cash, water, food and a charged phone matter more.

Bitcoin’s strengths show up in different situations:

• Long or widespread disruptions, where banks, card networks or payment apps stay down or limit withdrawals.
• Bank or payment outages that happen while the internet still works somewhere.
• Leaving an area or crossing a border, where you can carry your savings as 24 words in your head or on a steel plate.

Keep some cash at home no matter what. Bitcoin complements an emergency fund. It doesn’t replace one.

What still works with no power or internet

Your coins. They exist on the network, not on your device. Nothing local can delete them.

Your keys and backups. A seed phrase stamped in steel needs no electricity and survives fire and flood. See Seed backups.

Signing a transaction. Air-gapped signers are built to work offline. A SeedSigner, Coldcard Q, Keystone 3 Pro or Blockstream Jade can sign a transaction with no internet at all, running on a battery or power bank. The signed transaction is just data. You can carry it on a QR code, a microSD card or a phone screen until you reach a connection.

Receiving. Your receive addresses exist ahead of time. Someone can send to you while you’re offline. The payment lands on the network as soon as their transaction is broadcast. You’ll see it when you reconnect.

What doesn’t work

Broadcasting needs a connection somewhere. A signed transaction does nothing until it reaches the Bitcoin network. That takes internet access on some device, somewhere. It doesn’t have to be yours.

Confirmations need the network. Miners must include your transaction in a block. If your whole region is offline, the rest of the world keeps going, but you can’t see or prove a payment until you reconnect.

Most Lightning payments. Lightning is built for instant payments and needs both sides online at the moment of payment. Custodial Lightning apps also need their company’s servers to be reachable. If you run your own Lightning node, keep it offline as short a time as possible: a long outage can lead to channels being closed, and a node that’s offline for a long time relies on a watchtower to stay protected. For outage planning, treat Lightning as unavailable and plan around regular on-chain bitcoin.

How to send bitcoin during an outage

The core idea is simple: sign offline, broadcast wherever there’s signal.

1. Build the transaction. You need a wallet that knows your balance. A watch-only wallet like Sparrow on a laptop shows your balance as of the last sync. Sparrow can build an unsigned transaction (a PSBT) while offline from that saved state.
2. Sign it on your air-gapped device, powered by a battery bank.
3. Carry the signed transaction to any connection. That might be a phone with one bar of signal, a library, a friend’s satellite internet, or a town that still has power.
4. Broadcast it. Any device with internet can do this. Sparrow broadcasts directly. You can also paste the signed transaction’s raw hex into a public broadcast page such as mempool.space/tx/push. Broadcasting reveals nothing secret. The transaction is already signed and can’t be changed.

A signed transaction can only send coins where you told it to. Whoever broadcasts it can’t redirect the money. They can see the amount and addresses, so use a device you trust when you can.

About fees and pre-signing

You can sign a transaction ahead of time and keep it for later, but the fee you chose may be too low by the time you broadcast. If it gets stuck, raising the fee means signing again. If you pre-sign anything, choose a generous fee. It’s usually simpler to sign during the outage, when you know what you need to send.

Practice the whole sign-carry-broadcast routine on signet first. Free test coins make the mistakes free too.

Other ways to reach the network

These exist, but most are niche or experimental. They’re worth knowing about. They aren’t worth depending on.

Blockstream Satellite (receive only). Blockstream broadcasts the Bitcoin blockchain from satellites covering most of the world. With a small dish and receiver kit, a node can stay in sync with no internet at all. That keeps your wallet’s view of your balance current. It doesn’t broadcast your transactions: you still need some uplink to send. Blockstream also runs a paid Satellite API for sending messages over the satellite network, which isn’t a way to broadcast transactions. Check coverage for your country before buying hardware.

Feature-phone wallets over USSD. In several African countries, a service called Machankura lets people send and receive bitcoin over Lightning by dialing a code on a basic phone, with no data plan. It needs a working cell network, and it’s custodial: the service holds the keys. It doesn’t help with self-custody, but it shows how bitcoin can work over very thin connections.

Mesh radio (experimental). Hobby projects send raw transactions over long-range LoRa radios running Meshtastic, hopping from radio to radio until one reaches an internet-connected node that broadcasts it. BTC Mesh is one open-source example, and its developer describes it as still under development. The older goTenna and TxTenna mesh setup no longer works with new hardware, because goTenna discontinued its consumer Mesh radios. Default Meshtastic channels are readable by anyone in range, so don’t treat radio as private.

A simple power plan

Bitcoin gear uses very little power. Rough figures, which vary by model and use:

Device	Rough power draw	Notes
SeedSigner or hardware wallet	About 1 W or less	A small power bank runs one for days of occasional use
Phone	10–20 Wh per full charge	Your most useful device for broadcasting
Laptop	30–60 W while in use	Charge it fully before storms; dim the screen
Raspberry Pi-class node	A few watts to about 10 W	Can run on a large power bank or small battery for a while

A 20,000 mAh power bank (around 70 Wh) can recharge a phone several times or run a signer for a long time. A foldable USB solar panel of 20–60 W can top up power banks on a sunny day. Charge banks from the panel, then devices from the banks, so clouds don’t interrupt a signing session.

Before the outage: checklist

• Seed phrase backed up on steel, stored safely. A stamping kit costs about $25.
• Recovery tested: wipe the device, restore from the backup, check the addresses match.
• An air-gapped signer you know how to use: see Four ways to build a cold wallet or Build a SeedSigner.
• A watch-only wallet on a laptop, synced recently.
• A few receive addresses written down or saved, in case someone needs to pay you.
• Practiced a full offline sign and broadcast on signet.
• Two charged power banks, cables for every device, and ideally a small solar panel.
• Cash at home for daily needs.
• A written plan your family can follow if you’re not there. 2-of-3 multisig works well for this.

During the outage: checklist

• Save battery. Turn devices on only when you need them.
• Use cash first for local needs.
• If you must send bitcoin: build the transaction, sign it offline, check the address and amount on the signer’s screen.
• Choose a generous fee so it confirms without a resend.
• Carry the signed transaction to any working connection and broadcast it.
• Confirm it arrived once you’re back online.
• Never type your seed phrase into any phone or computer, however urgent things feel. Scammers target emergencies. See Common mistakes.

The takeaway

An outage can’t touch your bitcoin, and with an air-gapped signer and a power bank you can still sign transactions. What you need is a connection somewhere to send them. Set up and practice before you need it, keep cash for the short term, and treat bitcoin as the part of your plan that still works when banks and borders don’t.