1. If the Internet “goes out” globally (likewise if encryption is broke , or electricity “stops working”, we’ll have far bigger problems on our hands than Bitcoin possibly not working. Not to mention that the electronic elements of vault security protecting your gold may be auto disabled, along with most other means of security, communication, and wealth access going down and causing global chaos. Unlikely 😉

2. Power/internet outages aren’t likely to be a global phenomenon to begin with (refer to pt 1), and as long as there is one computer, somewhere in the world, finding blocks and validating transactions, Bitcoin will persist. Even if it’s 1 or 10 or 100 machines, as additional computers come back online, they will be able to validate the rules of the network and continue performing their node and/or miner roles.

Ultimately, there isn’t really a logical scenario where internet downtime would impact Bitcoin in any meaningful way, and any technical disaster scenario severe enough to “stop” Bitcoin would also have every single person’s online banking and physical bank branches inaccessible, traffic lights disabled and car accidents lining up in every city, you catch my drift.

I’m not suggesting that your gold bug debate partner is necessarily doing this, but it’s relatively easy to fall into the mental trap of thinking the government is borderline all-powerful if they want to be, especially in the context of tech, when in reality they’re not. (In some cases they may be; e.g. second amendment rights - while important in principle - are relatively worthless when the government’s army can just drone blast everyone’s backyard). But the point is, if these hyperbolic scenarios were to come to pass — and effectively “breaking” bitcoin really would require such extreme (if not absurd) measures — it would exceed the level at which most bitcoiners (who are already sensitive to encroachments on freedom and privacy) would likely have memorized our twelve words and skipped town, long before it gets bad enough to compromise the Bitcoin itself.