A global tech outage caused by a faulty update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has affected businesses globally and drawn attention to decentralized networks like Bitcoin. The flaw mostly affected Microsoft Windows-based systems, causing them to crash and display a blue screen.
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The incident has drawn the attention of many in the crypto community, who consider this a win for decentralization. They noted that blockchain networks remain fully functional, which is what the internet must become.
Windows systems experience a blue screen of death
The outage has greatly affected global tech infrastructure, impacting several essential services. Media reports confirm disruptions to banking operations, flight schedules, train movements, and TV broadcasts. Emergency services have also been disrupted in some parts of the US due to the issue.
At the center of the problem is the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) issue, which is affecting the thousands of Windows-based systems that downloaded the faulty update. With the BSOD issue, the machines crashed and could not be rebooted, leaving them stuck on a blue screen. Several pictures have emerged online showing the blue screen displays at airport boards, train stations, supermarkets, offices, and other places.
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Meanwhile, Crowdstrike has confirmed that it is working on fixing the issue by rolling back the update. The company also added that the incident was not a result of any cyberattack. However, it did not specify when the problem would be fixed. A moderator on the Crowdstrike subreddit has posted a temporary solution that has to be manually implemented for every system.
Bitcoin, others unaffected
The widespread outage has ignited a conversation about the centralization of the internet within the crypto community. No crypto projects have been affected, as all the major blockchain networks, including Bitcoin, remain fully functional.
Bitcoin Network Uptime (Source: Bitcoin Uptime)
Mudit Gupta, Polygon Labs CISO, noted that although the firm uses Crowdstrike, it avoided the incident because non-critical updates are tested before deployment. However, he added that Polygon networks will continue to operate even if the firm is impacted. He said:
“In any case, Polygon networks are decentralized. Even if Polygon Labs get affected in such an IT incident, nothing will be impacted on Polygon networks.”
Dozens of memecoins inspired by the incident also emerged on the Solana network. Several tokens with the ticker STRIKE and BSOD have been listed on DexScreener and have seen some gains in the past few hours. However, they are all low-cap tokens, with the biggest having a market cap of around $70,000. This highlights the speculative nature of these tokens, which have no intrinsic value.
Crypto bettors on Polymarket are also putting their money on various contracts related to the incident. Many expect it to be resolved today, with an 89% odds that it will be fixed by Friday night. The majority of these bettors also believe it is not a hack.
