As global investors flock to cryptocurrency as an investment vehicle, the use of cryptocurrencies for their intended purposes has come into question. New research suggests that only one-third of transactional activity occurring on the Bitcoin network is related to the purchase of goods or services.
The "intended purpose" of Bitcoin wasn't consumer purchases. It was intended to solve the double spending problem
without introducing a trusted third party. Consumer sales are just about the most boring use case for Bitcoin, and conventional payment methods are perfectly fine for most consumer applications.
If anything, consumer purchases should drop as a percentage of total BTC usage over time. As BTC becomes increasingly accepted as its own asset class and a store of value unto itself, people will just hoard it more and more.
Satoshi wanted Bitcoin to be used for many purposes, including consumer purchases. Also, the current centralized payment systems are not perfect for consumers - they lack privacy, they require trust (banks can and do freeze accounts for whatever reasons they want), fees can get big with international transactions. Maybe it's not a problem for the majority of population, but there are definitely those who would use crypto over traditional payments for their daily purchases.
That wasn't the point. There is a common misconception that the "intended purpose" or "point" of Bitcoin is consumer purchases -- just read the OP. Consumer purchases are just one possible application. As such, nobody should care if "only
x% of transactions" are for purchasing goods and services. It's obvious that consumer spending isn't Bitcoin's most common use case, let alone its "intended purpose."
What you're saying regarding privacy and trust isn't lost on me, but these considerations aren't very important for
most consumer transactions (particularly from the consumer side). Most consumer spending = housing, transportation, food, insurance, healthcare, clothing. Not black market or cross-border or government-sanctioned activity, etc. that requires trustlessness or privacy. For savvy consumers, using credit cards (and reaping the rewards) and paying them off without interest makes a lot more sense than spending precious bitcoins. And if you're worried about frozen bank accounts, that's about censorship resistance broadly, which reaches far beyond just consumer spending.
I'm a big believer in Bitcoin, consumers having additional options like Bitcoin is great. But consumer spending isn't what makes Bitcoin one of the most important inventions of our time.
