There is a discussion going on about Bitcoin as a payment method with a valuable storage. Consistently at prices over $10,000, the use of Bitcoin for less pushes from ETF issuers and Bitcoin financing companies and small payments seems more alien than ever.
But does Jack Dorsey say that if it’s a valuable storage and isn’t used to pay, Bitcoin will fail?
Bitcoin as a payment method
Bitcoin was fundamentally created as a payment method. This is the actual form of e-cash for private peer-to-peer transactions, and stores of its value status later appeared as an additional benefit. As Robin Linus, creator of BITVM, states:
“The purpose of Bitcoin is to pay. Value is a decent by-product.”
Over time, the dominant narrative around Bitcoin has shifted significantly towards “digital gold” and institutional investment, with many influential voices like Dorsey and Linas claiming that this has overlooked the original spirit of the project and altered the long-term relevance of the shortchange. Linus strengthened and declared his historical perspective.
“Cypherpunk Vision was clearly electronic cash for private, peer-to-peer payments. The story of “digital assets” came from others.
Dorsey doubled his statement and said:
“I think it has to be a payment to be relevant to every day. Otherwise, it’s something you buy and forget about and use only in emergencies, or just when you want to be liquid again. So if you don’t move on to payments and find a daily use case, it becomes more and more irrelevant.
Satoshi’s words will definitely go away
Nakamoto’s first communications, emails and the infamous Bitcoin whitepaper reveal that Bitcoin is about electronic cash, currency, money, and payments. His intentions for Bitcoin as a payment method are clear.
In an early email with Adam in 2008, Satoshi described Bitcoin as a groundbreaking way to build a peer-to-peer electronic currency, referencing previous digital cash projects and focusing on payments.
He wrote about proofs as a way to enable currency on a decentralized time stamp server to clarify the intent of payment.
The story change: From currency to assets
Over the years, the story has changed. Institutionalisation arrived in the form of ETFs, with marketing focused on “numbers rising” (NGU) and conversations on Bitcoin as a portfolio hedge.
These changes bring the ecosystem far from solutions that benefit everyday people and real-world payment usage cases, while bringing liquidity and wider acceptance. A divergence from Satoshi’s vision.
Bitcoin’s rise as a valuable reservoir has been infamous, but it veils the true foundations of private, peer-to-peer digital payments.
Some of the strongest voices of the project, Dorsey, Linas, Swan, and even Satoshi himself, remind us that the authentic universal utility depends on adopting Bitcoin as real money, not just for storage money.
Bitcoin Audible Host Geis Wang tagged Dorsey and Linas and other influential Bitcoin community members, including Michael Saylor, Ammas of Saiphed, and Adam Buck, for serious public debate.
“I want the best thing here that brings real arguments. It’s not just taglines, moral attitudes and quotes from white papers.”
Devoting Bitcoin to a mere store of value risks losing its original vision and usefulness that once stood out. The future of Bitcoin as a payment method relies on communities willing to challenge the general narrative and focus on payments and real-world adoption.
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