The communications blackout sweeping across Iran right now marks a turning point that's hard to overstate. Locals have weathered connectivity disruptions before during periods of civil unrest—it's become almost routine. But this one? It's different. The scale and severity far exceed anything the country has faced previously. Internet and phone services are practically non-existent across vast regions. For a population increasingly dependent on digital channels for everything from finance to information access, the implications are profound. This kind of infrastructure shutdown raises critical questions about network resilience and why decentralized alternatives matter more than ever in regions where central authorities can simply pull the plug.