1. What Are EMPs and Solar Storms?

Most of us rely on electronic devices every day — phones, computers, tablets, and the networks that connect them. Two natural and man-made phenomena have the potential to disrupt electronics on a wide scale: electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) and severe solar storms.

Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP)

An EMP is a short, intense burst of electromagnetic energy. It can be produced by:

A large EMP event can induce sudden electrical surges in wires, antennas, and circuit boards, potentially damaging or destroying unprotected electronics. Power grid transformers are especially vulnerable because they are large, expensive, and difficult to replace quickly.

Carrington-Class Solar Storm

The sun regularly produces bursts of charged particles called coronal mass ejections (CMEs). A powerful one can interact with Earth's magnetic field, generating geomagnetic storms that drive large electrical currents through power lines and pipelines.

The most famous example is the Carrington Event of 1859, when a massive solar storm disrupted telegraph systems across North America and Europe, even setting some telegraph paper on fire. A storm of that magnitude today — when our infrastructure is far more dependent on electricity — could cause widespread power outages lasting weeks to months in affected regions.

A near-miss occurred in July 2012, when a Carrington-scale CME passed through Earth's orbit just nine days after Earth was at that position. Scientists estimate a 1-in-8 chance of a Carrington-class event striking Earth within any given decade.

Key point: These events are not science fiction. They are documented historical and scientific phenomena. The question is not if a major event will occur, but when — and how prepared infrastructure (and individuals) will be.

2. What Executive Order 13865 Says

On March 26, 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13865, titled "Coordinating National Resilience to Electromagnetic Pulses." Here is what it means in plain language:

What the Order Does

What the Order Does Not Do

Important: EO 13865 focuses on national and critical infrastructure — power grids, military systems, financial networks, and communications. Your home, personal computer, and stored digital files are outside the scope of this order. Personal preparedness remains your own responsibility.

3. What Could Be at Risk

The severity of impact from an EMP or major solar storm depends on many factors: the strength of the event, your location, whether your devices are connected to power lines at the time, and how well your local infrastructure is hardened.

⚡ Power Grid

  • Large transformers most vulnerable
  • Could take months to replace
  • Extended outages affect everything else

📡 Communications

  • Cell towers and internet infrastructure
  • Satellite systems potentially affected
  • Radio may be more resilient than internet

💻 Personal Electronics

  • Plugged-in devices at higher risk
  • Devices in storage may survive
  • Surge protectors offer limited help

🏦 Financial Systems

  • Bank servers and ATM networks
  • Digital payment processing
  • Cloud storage and data centres

Unplugged devices stored inside a metal enclosure (a Faraday cage) have significantly better odds of surviving a direct EMP event. However, no consumer-grade protection is certified to handle the most extreme scenarios.

4. Practical Steps You Can Take

You do not need to be a prepper or an engineer to take sensible precautions. The following steps are practical, affordable, and useful even in everyday situations like power outages or hardware failures.

General Preparedness

  1. Keep printed copies of critical information. Bank account numbers, insurance policies, emergency contacts, medication lists, and important passwords should exist on paper, stored in a secure, dry location. Paper survives EMP events — electronics may not.
  2. Maintain offline backups of important files. Use USB drives or external hard drives (stored unplugged) for documents, photos, and financial records. Rotate backups regularly — do not rely solely on the cloud.
  3. Keep a small emergency cash reserve. If banking networks go down, even for a few days, cash becomes essential. A modest amount in small bills, stored securely at home, provides short-term resilience.
  4. Store a spare, older electronic device unplugged. An older phone or tablet kept in a metal tin or Faraday bag, with essential apps and contacts loaded, may survive where connected devices do not.
  5. Have a battery-powered or hand-crank AM/FM radio. During infrastructure failures, traditional radio broadcasts often continue. This is one of the most reliable ways to receive emergency information.
  6. Understand your home's circuit breaker. Know how to disconnect your home from the grid manually. During a geomagnetic storm warning, unplugging major appliances may reduce surge risk.

Faraday Protection — What It Is and What It Isn't

A Faraday cage is a conductive enclosure — metal box, metal-lined bag, or similar — that can block electromagnetic fields. Commercially available "Faraday bags" are marketed for EMP protection. They vary widely in quality and none are certified against a full-scale EMP event.

Practical tip: You do not need to live in fear. Think of these steps the same way you think about home insurance — you hope you never need them, but having them in place provides real peace of mind.

5. Protecting Bitcoin and Digital Assets

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are secured by private keys — long strings of characters that prove ownership of funds on the blockchain. If you lose your private key and have no backup, your funds are permanently inaccessible. An EMP event that destroys your devices without a backup would have the same effect.

Protecting your Bitcoin against EMP risk is largely the same as protecting it against hardware failure, fire, or theft — the fundamentals are the same.

Seed Phrases — Your Most Important Backup

Most modern Bitcoin wallets use a seed phrase (also called a recovery phrase or mnemonic) — typically 12 or 24 common words generated when you set up the wallet. Anyone with this phrase can reconstruct your wallet and access your funds.

Hardware Wallets and EMP Risk

Hardware wallets (physical devices like Ledger or Trezor) are small, specialized computers that store your private keys offline. An EMP event could potentially damage the device itself. However:

Paper Wallets

A paper wallet is a printed document containing your public address and private key. Paper itself is EMP-immune. Risks include physical damage (fire, water), theft, and degradation over time. Paper wallets are a reasonable offline storage option when combined with secure physical storage.

Summary: Bitcoin EMP Preparedness

The core principle: If your seed phrase exists on durable, physical media stored in a secure location — separate from your devices — your Bitcoin can be recovered even if every electronic device you own is destroyed. The blockchain itself runs on thousands of nodes worldwide; it does not depend on your personal hardware.

6. Realistic Expectations

It is important to be honest about what personal preparedness can and cannot accomplish.

What Preparedness Can Do

What Preparedness Cannot Do

Be wary of exaggerated claims. Some products and websites overstate EMP risks to sell expensive solutions. Take a measured approach: reasonable offline backups and physical document storage go a long way without requiring significant expense.

Perspective

A Carrington-class event striking Earth is a real, scientifically documented possibility — but it is not an everyday probability. The most common threats to your digital information remain hardware failure, accidental deletion, fire, flood, and theft. The good news is that the same steps that protect against those common threats — offline backups, physical copies, secure storage — also provide meaningful protection against larger-scale events.

7. Further Reading