Topic: Bitcoin: an Electronic Cash System - page 2. (Read 301 times)

Bitcoin today isn't whatever Satoshi intended it to be. Satoshi only set the canvas of what Bitcoin is, and it's totally up to the community now what Bitcoin is actually for moving forward.

But in my opinion, actually we also can't deny that actually accepting bitcoin as an alternative means of payment is a joy, indeed so far bitcoin has been out of the main reason when Satoshi first created bitcoin, now bitcoin is more identical as an investment compared to the main reason namely: To decentralize the payment system that is free from central control or third party intermediaries including banks and the government, at this time maybe without us knowing it in the modern era using bitcoin as an alternative payment is much better and more efficient but the regulations created by the government force us to further optimize bitcoin as an investment asset.

Again, my point is that Bitcoin wasn't intended for those kinds of transactions. Yes, Bitcoin is intended as a payment method, but online. So if you're dealing with somebody face to face, Bitcoin isn't for it. Cash is the real peer to peer. There are no third parties in between. It's a great system that Satoshi wanted to imitate it in the online world where P2P transactions aren't at all possible.

So to a certain extent, buying a piece of cupcake from a nearby bakeshop using Bitcoin isn't really adoption. It isn't the goal, after all.

Not really. People get ecstatic not necessarily because bitcoin is being used for one of the things it's intendedly made for(payments), but mostly because bitcoin is actually getting used in the first place. We all know that Bitcoin is already a household name, yet adoption is still very low.

When I first read Bitcoin's whitepaper, it immediately impressed upon me that Satoshi created a currency that does not intend to replace cash nor even serve as its alternative. I'm referring to cold cash.

Satoshi's invention is an electronic system. Nowadays, however, you can easily notice how the emphasis on "electronic" is omitted. When you search Bitcoin, for example, Wikipedia would define it as a "protocol which implements a highly available, public, and decentralized ledger."^[1] Bitcoin.org would have it as an "open source P2P money." Clicking on it would further define Bitcoin as "an innovative payment network and a new kind of money."^[2] Furthermore, Investopedia would define Bitcoin as "a cryptocurrency, a virtual currency designed to act as money and a form of payment outside the control of any one person, group, or entity, thus removing the need for third-party involvement in financial transactions."^[3]

So, aside from the whitepaper, you can seldom encounter a definition which gives emphasis on "electronic." But Satoshi clearly designed it with "online payments" in mind. What was taken into primary consideration was E-commerce.^[4]

Is it, therefore, somehow a misplaced appreciation of Bitcoin when many are ecstatic every time it is accepted as a payment for a glass of lemonade or a piece of banana?

My interpretation is that Satoshi believed that the cash system is a good system and that such kind of system should also exist online. Until then, there wasn't such a thing. E-commerce transactions were only possible with the participation of financial institutions as necessary third parties.

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin
[2] https://bitcoin.org/en/
[3] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bitcoin.asp
[4] https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf