Afghanistan’s recent nationwide internet outage highlighted a critical weakness of the world’s leading decentralized blockchain: its dependence on centralized internet providers, which remain vulnerable to government intervention and technological failures.
The country experienced a near-total internet blackout that lasted about 48 hours until connectivity was restored on October 1, Reuters reported. The disruption was reportedly ordered by the Taliban regime, but officials later blamed it on “technical issues” involving fiber optic cables.
Blockchain is intended to provide a censorship-resistant public network for transferring value to people, but its reliance on centralized internet providers makes these use cases difficult during internet outages.
“Afghanistan’s power outage is more than just a regional connectivity crisis, it’s a wake-up call,” said Michail Angelov, co-founder of decentralized WiFi platform Roam Network. “The promise of blockchain can collapse overnight if connectivity is monopolized by a few centralized providers,” he said.
ABC News reported in September that the nationwide internet and mobile data service outage affected about 13 million people. This is the first nationwide internet shutdown under Taliban rule, following regional restrictions imposed in early September to curb online activity deemed “immoral.”
The Taliban denied the ban and blamed the internet outage on technical problems, including problems with fiber-optic cables.
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Iran has also faced problems with internet censorship since the start of its conflict with Israel.
The Iranian government shut down internet access for 13 days in June, except for domestic messaging apps, prompting Iranians to seek hidden internet proxy links for temporary access, The Guardian reported on June 25.
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DePIN project is building a decentralized internet infrastructure
The Afghanistan power outage further reinforced the need for decentralized connectivity solutions that eliminate single points of control.
Decentralized wireless networks are emerging as an alternative to centralized internet providers as part of a broader technology shift known as decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN).
Roam aims to build a decentralized wireless network powered by smartphones that crowdsources mobile signal measurements to create a “living map of connectivity.”
In addition to the project’s upcoming eSIM implementation, this will allow devices to automatically select the best available internet option, including public carriers, private mesh, and peer-driven local networks.
“Roaming users can see in real time what is working and where. They don’t have to guess during an outage,” which ensures connectivity even if “the centralized backbone fails,” Angelov said.
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World Mobile Ecosystem Statistics. Source: worldmobile.io
World Mobile is the largest decentralized network with 2.3 million daily active users across more than 20 countries, according to data from worldmobile.io.
The project grossed more than $9.8 million in August. This represents the revenue distributed to AirNode operators, stakers, and other contributors.
Helium network statistics. Source: world.helium.com
Helium is the second largest distributed wireless network, with a total of 112,000 hotspots in over 190 countries around the world. The decentralized network claims to have more than 1.3 million daily users.
Users are incentivized to host hotspots for internet coverage through Helium (HNT) token rewards.
Proponents argue that blockchain technology’s promise of economic freedom and resistance to censorship cannot be fully realized until the underlying internet itself becomes more decentralized.
As Angelov said, “When decentralization stops at the protocol layer, the problem is not really solved; it just shifts the locus of control.”
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