Topic: Will bitcoin become a payment option?Was the initial design of bitcoin tobe paym (Read 195 times)

Well, currently, bitcoin is definitely seen more as an investment rather than a means of payment for goods and services as it was initially designed.
But what if I tell you that Satoshi actually designed bitcoin to also be regarded as an asset to be invested in?

Have you ever wondered why Satoshi capped the total/max supply of bitcoin to 21 million?
Do you know that law of scarcity and demand? Which states that, when something is very scarce, and there demand for it keeps increasing, so also does that price or worth of that thing keep increasing.

All this (plus more) are what Satoshi had in mind when he designed bitcoin, he sure wrote in the white paper that bitcoin is an electronic peer to peer cash system, but trust, if Satoshi really wanted bitcoin to serve as an instrument of payment for goods and services alone, he would have made the bitcoin supply to be infinite, so that the price will be relatively low and stable.

Bitcoin is already being used now as another form of payment, but yeah it is mostly used in closed group or just those person who are aware about the existence of crypto curren y and especially bitcoin, many online trasactions now can be done using bitcoin as it provides security and safety, and also you can transfer any amount without having a tax or anything, but of course as I said these transactions are mainly online or few people, its because bitcoin or crypto currency can't still be spread world wide, I mean even we are already spreading the idea about bitcoi many people are still hesistant to it as also this kind of payment is too complex for other individual to handle, so before bitcoin or any crypro currency can be used for transactions daily there is still a long way of process for everyone to adopt it, we will wait for that day to happen.

Telling you this is just like telling you what the future is about, which will not be true; furthermore, it will be very hard to get this answer because nobody knows what will happen. If you ask what will happen tomorrow, you can see that it will just be a prediction, but the thing is that nobody will tell you when Bitcoin will be accepted as a means of payment world-wide if that is what you are talking about because the currency is not accepted in many countries. The only thing I can tell you is that some countries have accepted it. and even in those countries, they did not fully accept it as an alternative payment method because they have their own local currency.


Yes, actually, the main purpose of creating bitcoin is to make payments when purchasing something, but due to its volatility, people have discovered another way of investing, and seriously, I can say that it is because of this investment that Bitcoin has gained more recognition now. If not, I don't think it would have gained this popularity. If not, I don't think people will accept it this way, and now that it has saved many individuals from poverty, lack of jobs, and some other things, the aspect that contributes to making Bitcoin a viable payment method is this investment.

I'm talking about some people who invested and still use it to pay for something if they buy something from a store where they accept Bitcoin. so I think investment also contributes to making Bitcoin a viable means of payment. With time, everything will go as it is supposed to because you know it is going to be something that will happen in a short period of time.

If it's about when people will accept Bitcoin, quite a few people are accepting it, but not everywhere it is accepted as a payment method. Even if some countries have accepted it in their nations, the rest are just doing individual acceptance, which is another way of raising awareness in their way. People who are into Bitcoin will be encouraged, and the goal for the usage of Bitcoin is to become dynamic and a lot of things are changing. For some people, it is an asset and for others, it is a payment method.


that question to everyone as a reason and a choice if they want to accept Bitcoin or not. It is not something that is forced and, like I said, most people use it as a means of raising awareness about bitcoin. The main focus and what makes it interesting, is when you see it as an investment. That way, you can make a profit and things like this make it different from fiat but when you buy, you can make use of it because, if I can remember their websites, you can buy things using Bitcoin but the most important thing about Bitcoin is the profit.

Because it's still in the discovering price period, and a lot think that the price might be higher and higher so here you have the volatility coming in, until we get past all those phases like the current ETH approval, the incoming halving and maybe even the next one we will still have swings as news, hype, fomo and everything else will still influenced the price in a disproportionate way.

And until this phase passes and no longer you can dream of 5x in a year or two you will not see people spending their coins, because...why would they do it unless forced?


I have a feeling that if we run the numbers there are more people entrusting their Bitcoins to banks (Binance,Coinbase,Kucoin...hmm let's add FTX,mtGox) than there are people paying for stuff and goods or services directly in crypto.And, I still think Bitcoin is doing better in those stats than other altcoins, I'm sure all under top 20 have just exchnge<>wallet<>exchnge activity.

 There is no ambiguity here. Bitcoin was designed to be "electronic cash". 

The first sentence of the white paper says is very clearly - "A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution."

Peer-to-peer electronic cash is needed to decentralize our systems and allow them to be more responsive to the producers.

If you ask when we will not be able to give you the answer. but what is certain is that Bitcoin has been used by some countries or some business people as a means of payment as an alternative to using fiat.
Bitcoin is designed for currency ownership that is 100% under your control which you can transfer for your needs or other transactions according to your wishes without interference from other parties.
Currently, when you deposit money in the bank, you also authorize the Bank to use your money for the Bank's needs.
Currently, more countries accept Bitcoin as an investment asset. but that doesn't preclude the use of Bitcoin as a means of payment. it's just that each country has its regulations regarding the legal use of currency.

The widely-held assumption used to be that volatility would naturally taper off over time and then Bitcoin would settle into more of a currency role.  But I haven't seen anyone saying that lately.  Perhaps that assumption has changed now?  The roller-coaster doesn't appear to be slowing down yet.  We likely won't know for sure for another decade or so.

BTC is a currency to firstly begin with. It is supposed to be a medium of payment for transactions and service just as regular fiat is but with the spot ETF and other investment projects its developers has come up with, it may be more than just a currency, but an asset of value that promises to remain so. Many persons who invest in BTC do so because it is an investment that can be untraceable for as long as one HoDLs as deemed fit .

 It is just the fact that it is decentralized on its own network and bolsters anonymity, in that government servers or agencies would find it hard to track any transaction that happens on the network that makes it not so accepted by various government of a country.
Else, It is a digital currency used by the special few who know how to, hence the P2p initiative which makes it work better.
With more acceptance and regulations taking hold of the network and idea of BTC, we might soon see BTC ATMs in real world being rampant and of course real BTC currency will be withdrawn and used as regular fiat would.

Before it becomes widely used for payments it has to be widely owned as an investment/store of value/savings. We are still very far from the first condition. Probably less than 1% of the world owns Bitcoin. Even if you take out the children in the population, adoption still is probably only right around 1.0%. 1% of the adult population, spread all over the world. That's not nearly enough density of ownership for merchant adoption, which is of course required for people to make payments.




Specifically, what we need to have Bitcoin being used regularly for payments is:

1. Cheap fast transactions (Lightning Network ✅ and other solutions like that)

2. As said above, enough people owning bitcoin - still many years away from this

3. To add to #2, enough people owning bitcoin for a long enough period of time, cuz people are only going to want to spend their bitcoin once they are easily in the green and not worried about spending at a loss. Because a lot of the whole point of Bitcoin is to use it as savings to gain money while you are holding, so at least in more economically stable countries, people will only bother spending bitcoin they've been saving for years and have seen plenty of value appreciation on, though les economically stable countries people may not care so much because they would just be trying to get out of their weak currency/corrupt banks. So let's say that delays the payment use case for one to two market cycles, so 4-8 years delay beyond when there is enough ownership density in populations to warrant merchant adoption

4. Less volatility and appreciation. People aren't gonna want to spend bitcoin all that much if it goes up a ton in value over time. Though this may not matter because by the time there are enough people to satisfy #2 and #3 bitcoin will probably be fairly mature and will no longer be going up by dozens percent per year.

5. Merchant adoption. Can't buy things until merchants add bitcoin payment options. And there is no reason to do this until #2 is hit. And of course this will happen gradually over many years, and then actual use of these bitcoin payment options by the public will gradually happen over many years once it is available.

6. Tax laws that make room for bitcoin payments. Not very many people are ever going to use bitcoin for payments if you have to calculate how much capital gains tax you owe every time you buy something. So in nations where you pay taxes on bitcoin profits (most nations) there need to be laws that allow transactions under a certain amount to be tax free. In the US Congress such a low has already been proposed a couple times (tax free for txs with less than I think $200 profit), but we are still probably numerous years away from the law actually getting passed because politicians don't know enough or care enough about Bitcoin to bother passing such a law yet.




So yes, bitcoin was designed as a p2p payments platform of course, in addition to being designed as a perfectly transparent scarce hard currency, and it is completely capable of being used globally for payments with second layer solutions, since the base chain was not designed for large payment usage obviously. But the six things above will have to be met before we see people regularly using bitcoin for payments. I'd guess we will see payment adoption take off in the 2040s and 2050s. 2020s and 2030s its still going to primarily just be used for investment/store-of-value/savings.

Increasing demand.

This is just a matter of societal trend, bitcoin has not lost its functionality as a means of payment. Likewise gold, how many people in real life use it for daily shopping? Do you see gold trending higher as a means of payment or investment item in say this decade?

Bitcoin's original design was to be a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. The landscape has changed substantially. Bitcoin is primarily seen as an investment because to its volatility and capital gains. Apathy against its use for daily transactions stems from this investment-centric viewpoint. The hefty fees and empathy for people who've dealt with them explain why Bitcoin hasnt become a popular payment option. Transaction prices are "insane," especially for modest purchases, and a major obstacle. The issue is consumer perception and economic viability, not merely technology. Bitcoin has been tested as a payment system, but its high fees and investment status prevent its acceptance in regular business. To fulfill its full potential, a paradigm shift is needed to overcome its psychological and economic challenges.

The sole purpose of Bitcoin now is to invest, hold, and wait for the price to increase. It sounds odd. What factors contribute to the increase in Bitcoin's price despite its lack of tangible value in real life?

I become more confused as I study Bitcoin further. It seems simple, but upon deeper reflection, it is not simple at all. People believe that the price of Bitcoin will rise, which is why more people buy and hold it. However, Bitcoin does not have any practical applications in real life. Many wealthy individuals profit from this belief.

I have to agree with this. People nowadays seem to be more greedy as it is. Bitcoin is a highly profitable digital asset or investment, and grows its value along with time, that’s why a lot of us prefer to buy and hold it for long term than to serve its purpose as a mode of payment. Now, even if you are living in a country where bitcoin is accepted as a payment option, I don’t think you’ll be more willing to pay using bitcoin more than fiat. No one would waste spending its hard-earned bitcoin when we all know majority are greedy to have it. Besides, bitcoin has the highest ROI among other investments, which attracted a lot of people to save bitcoin for investment rather than having it as a currency for payment.

According to what we know and what had satoshi planned, yes. Bitcoin was meant to use for a payment
through peer to peer transactions. It just seems impossible now because everyone sees bitcoin as an
investment which hikes up the prices and therefore making investors hold on to these bitcoin instead of using
them for transactions.

Do I think there is a chance that bitcoin is used as a payment method? Yes, definitely but it would not
be in the next 5 or maybe even 8 years. I think bitcoin can become as a payment method when problems like
high transaction fees are resolved.

You can't always get the most accurate answer for this sadly, but I can drop my own point of view, Bitcoin has three features that can help people depending on what they want.

1. Bitcoin can double or triple your money if you invest when its cheap and sell when it's high in price, you can make Bitcoin your investment haven.

2. If decentralization is what you care about, Bitcoin is here to serve you right.

3. You looking for a good store of value? Bitcoin seem right as a true digital gold.

4. It can be use as a means of payment, its just left for both sides to accept and receive as a means of payment.

So what's left now is what you want from Bitcoin, if none of these isn't what you are looking for then start looking into something else, whichever way people sees Bitcoin is left for them, as for me, it's a good investment choice, store of value and also fits my decentralization needs.

I live in a country where using debit card doesn't charge fees for every transactions you made, they only change per month and it's low. I'm not familiar with cash processing, what I know everything related to cash is free, that's why most people are using cash.

That's why I say it need to be free because people will choose the best.

You have asked a question that no one has an answer to.  The number of people around the world who know about Bitcoin or cryptocurrency is much less than the population of the entire world.  I saw a survey that around 10% of people know about cryptocurrency. But its increasing rate is very high.  However, it is expected to spread worldwide in the next 10-20 years.
Moreover, Bitcoin is accepted as payment in many areas worldwide. If you wanna use any service for Bitcoin then you can visit this map- https://map.bitcoin.com/

I think Bitcoin's evolution into a widely accepted payment method depends on a few things. To become a reliable payment option, it needs better tech, clearer rules, more businesses on board and easier-to-use systems. While it's true that right now people mostly see it as an investment, its future as a go-to payment method depends on sorting out these issues and getting more people to trust and use it for everyday purchases

but why for free? card or cash processing is included into price

To be honest, no one wants to treat bitcoins as a mode of payment. The reason for this is very simple. Bitcoins are limited in numbers and that is no more Bitcoins can be created or made, hence people will treat is as a digital asset only. People rather than giving it as a payment, will hold it and accumulate it. Yes, initially it might be developed to pay online, but now the meaning has completely changed.

You need to move to El Salvador to know if Bitcoin was been accepted as legal tender in there.

If you're wishing Bitcoin to be used as payment option in other countries, the most important thing the government need to declare it's fine to use Bitcoin as currency even though they didn't explicitly legalizing Bitcoin as legal tender.

Second is, the developer need to find a way to send Bitcoin for free (using L2 or sidechain make you need to spend for few cents, people are looking for free).

Thank you for the responses. I believe I have an answer in mind.

Some would argue it already is widely accepted as a payment option. It is used in multiple countries both online and offline and is the legal tender of at least 1 country at this time. In the short time it has existed, that's a lot of progress.
If you're asking when it would compete with VISA, PayPal and other payment options, no one can say for sure when that will happen.

Yes.

The Bitcoin whitepaper starts off describing Bitcoin as;
"A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash [which] would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution".

• Scalability is the most important factor a viable payment option should have. Second on the list will be price volatility.
• Yes, bitcoins are speculated on more than they are used for payments.

Nobody knows.


Yes. If you read this original bitcoin white paper Satoshi mentioned it there

What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party. Transactions that are computationally impractical to reverse would protect sellers from fraud, and routine escrow mechanisms could easily be implemented to protect buyers.



I refer you to the bitcoin white paper for your answer


Not really, it depends on the user and their intent of holding bitcoin.

Satoshi Nakamoto's original paper is still recommended reading for anyone studying how Bitcoin works - https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

Bitcoin is widely accepted currently but partially as a means  of payment.
Bitcoin  initial creation was to provide a sole purpose of a decentralized  form of digital currency  I.e free from any form influence from government or agencies unlike the fiat system  which is centralised  and controlled by the government and its  agencies.
Bitcoin  has been made a means of payment in some countries and I  know sooner than later more countries  will join the course.

As time passes on bitcoin keeps increasing in value, making investors to see it as more of an investment than a payment method. However, bitcoin is still used for an alternative payment method everyday by business owners wide world. This is because it is easy to transfer a huge amount of bitcoin easily than using a third party which might raise eye browns. Bitcoin as a payment option will keep on increasing because there are people who love privacy in their financial life. It is the rich business people that uses it more as a payment option as that is why you are seeing some businesses that accept bitcoin as an alternative payment method. Ferrari accepts payment in bitcoin. Everybody has a reason why they adopted bitcoin. I believe with time, it will be used more as an investment because of the high profit that it generates with time-line. This forum also uses bitcoin from payment, and also with some users here. Transaction fee is now becoming a barrier for small businesses using it as a payment option.

Nobody can give you an accurate answer about this. But you can still use bitcoin to pay on some websites. Also you can decide to settle some deals with someone that you know that knows about bitcoin with bitcoin. Bitcoin is frequently used for purchases and payinfor services in some countries. Some countries are very bitcoin friendly.

That is what that was said but those that designed bitcoin design it to be an investment.

Bitcoin is a viable payment option but the fee is getting high without going down as usual as it was before. Lightning network is one of the ways bitcoin payment can be better.

I will say that also.

When I was searching about bitcoin, a question came to mind: When will bitcoin become widely accepted as a payment option in real life? Was the initial design of bitcoin intended for use as a form of payment? What aspects contribute to making bitcoin a viable payment option? I know that currently, bitcoin is seen more as an investment rather than a means of payment. Is that correct?