Bitcoin Forum

Most people buy Bitcoin hoping its price will rise, but fewer actually use it for payments or savings. For Bitcoin to truly succeed, will its future rely on growing real-world usage as money, or will speculation and trading remain the main driver of its adoption?

I personally feel, that in order to make it completely global, the use as a payment or saving needs to be encouraged much more.

It seems to me that you're stuck in the past, my friend. Bitcoin adoption will not come as a means of payment. Bitcoin is increasingly being adopted as a store of value, and for that, not much more is needed than what already exists. Sure, it's moving away from the initial idea of being a P2P cash system, but it's on its way to becoming the number one asset in the world, which is no small feat.

I would add: 1. when there are not capital gains taxes (in some places) for spending that will help, 2. when bitcoin reaches more fiat equilibrium (another couple of orders of magnitude), and 3. people don't have to convert out of bitcoin into fiat then people will be much more inclined to use bitcoin in the real world.

It is not even moving away from being P2P because you can still decide to make bitcoin transfer to someone at anytime. The bitcoin network is available 24/7. It is people that prefer to hold it. People will not prefer to hold what that does not have value.

Right now there are over 126000 unconfirmed bitcoin transactions. That is the average now which still means that people are making use of bitcoin for spending or transaction in one way or the other.

Bitcoin is used for payments, lots of it for that matter, get the statistics from the mempool and you'll be startled. Starting with the example that's native to us in this forum, I get my payment for signature campaigns in Bitcoin. I also still get paid for some of my jobs off the forum in Bitcoin _{for clients that would agree}. I'll prefer more people buy Bitcoin and hold because it affects it's performance positively as more people buy and hold since it's a store if value and a hedge against inflation and currency first depreciation.

From a natural perspective, we consider only accepting Bitcoin and holding it as the main purpose. But if we consider the issue of adoption, then accepting Bitcoin and spending it are also important (https://cointelegraph.com/news/spend-your-bitcoin-don-t-just-hoard-it). There are quite logical reasons for this.

When Bitcoin is spent, companies or entrepreneur will start accepting Bitcoin. Naturally, then the use of Bitcoin will increase even more. As a result, we will get more transection in bitcoin. People will focus on accepting Bitcoin more.

Satoshi Nakamoto's purpose of creating Bitcoin was not only to hold but also as an alternative means of transaction. If someone wants to hold for personal gain, he will definitely benefit, as well as for his daily use, if he keeps two separate wallets and tries to make daily transactions with one of them, he can also do that. That's why I can say when we use more Bitcoin, It will be effective for Bitcoin adoption.

Bitcoin's adoption isn't tied to just one factor alone. The very moment governments and well established organizations started seeing a need to invest in it, that was the day it became certain that its adoption would be a global thing with time, though the issue of regulation is still very much on ground.

Of course, using Bitcoin as a means of payment is a factor to some extent, and we've seen people do that even till today. Do you think the number of trades currently happening is not enough?, of course it is. It's a gradual process. Compared to two or three years ago, Bitcoin has improved. It's never in a hurry to reach mainstream.

I believe there is still balance anyway. Yes speculation drives the market forward and this is how a lot of countries and institutions come to buy bitcoin but there are also countries who are now interested in mining bitcoin and making use of it as an actual currency. Especially ones with hyperinflation in their country.

Well, based on the question in your op I'll say the adoption is based off everything and that comprises of both real time investment and trading. If you actually take a good look at the growth of bitcoin adoption you'll discover that the very first step was an increase in P2P transactions with bitcoin and we have our thanks to Laszlo for making that part of the white paper more solid.

The easier it is for people to spend a particular coin the higher the adoption rate too and it was actually one of the reasons you see tether grew very fast in that it was pegged to the dollar.

You could have witnessed that Bitcoin has evolved already. Yes, it was developed to be as a micro payment scheme by Satoshi. However, when it was started to be traded and has value, then it became an speculative asset.

And so be it, there are uses of Bitcoin in a financial standpoint,

it could be a store of value (SoV), as hedge, as we can put our wealth on it and fight inflation or even uses it as sound money. But for most of us, we store Sats and hold for a long time and make a lot of profit.

We have LN already for micro-payments or there could be online store that accept it as mode of payment. But regardless, the rate of adoption will continue no matter how do you see Bitcoin.

The better words to use in place of speculation is that most people buy bitcoin to benefit from its tendency to rise due to its strong principles or the foundation it's built on. Speculation would mean uncertainty, but we aren't dealing with that here as long as it's in the Power of the ONE who guarantees its growth. It's like speculating on the growth of a plant, but when it's planted in a good land and nurture to grow by a Good HAND, those who invest in the plant are nolonger speculating on its growth because it certainly will grow.  
And there is the likelihood of those who wish to speculate to end up using bitcoin as Store of Value when they realize it's actually more than a speculative asset that can also serve as proof against inflation or devaluation of their national currencies... And this will end up counting as savings

In regards to using Bitcoin for payments or as MoE, well, people do this as well, but we tend to advice against spending it unnecessarily since it's very valuable, and spending it on something less valuable or bad wont be a good financial decision. It's better they save it more than spending it until they need to. This will help encourage financial prudence and responsible use of money

I am also positive with bitcoin. But we should also consider negative points or limitations before coming to any conclusion.

I think both should influence bitcoin usage, except real world use will take some time as adoption numbers are still low & most people are still in doubt with how genuine BTC is and are slow on adopting and using it..if we retail users were more these institutional investors wouldn't be holding the amount of Bitcoins they have today, and also merchants aren't helping with the process as they haven't ventured into it.

For the speculative trading, I believe this has existed for a while...we have people bring in big money in the industry which is having an immediate impact and encouraging others to do so.. so basically both will help with onboarding crypto users.

Let us be realistic here, the objectives of people purchasing bitcoin to hold, it's because they wants bitcoin to increase, and that's why you see some people who borrowed to invest in bitcoin, runs a short-term investment  and their expectation at that moment is for bitcoin to increase so they will make a profit

Human being are different, and we have different obligations why we use bitcoin, they're people whose intentions to hold or save bitcoin is to make rise, and some uses bitcoin to make payments, such as casinos deposit in gambling and trading, but I'm not sure that there's anyone who is using bitcoin or keeping bitcoin for speculation purpose.

Actually the purpose of creating Bitcoin is for global transactions as a currency, or to use as a payment method of goods and services, but almost everyone who is using bitcoin today misunderstood the reason why Bitcoin was created, so payments method were the one of aims why bitcoin were introduced as a currency.

I believe the future is ours to decide. Personally, I don’t see Bitcoin becoming a widely used payment system anytime soon, but I’m confident that mass adoption will come through its role as a store of value.

I am envisioning, payment-layer innovations like the Lightning Network might gradually make it realistic for smaller, faster transactions, attracting even more people to treat it as a payment option  but even then, most adoption today begins with holding, only a few consider spending.

Most of us are of the opinion that Bitcoins growth will increase from a number reasons
or 'avenues'. Its not going to be based on one single factor.

To name a few, Means of payment, Part of an investment strategy, spot ETF's,
wealth preservation, trading, Hedging against FIAT syatem and Ditching $hitcoins
in favour of Bitcoin, realisation of the financial benefits which Bitcoin offers.
These all play into the Bitcoin adoption topic.

(my 2 satoshi)
There is an important aspect before any of these points. You need to have... something that works! The adoption and success of bitcoin depends on his features. 
bitcoin offer a solution to many things. It provides a new answer to many problems, in some cases it poses also new questions....
This is what lead everything in adoption.
For sure this is also the "backbone" that would lead to other technologies (or platforms, something we have already seen with polymarkets just to mention one).

Upon proper considerations, using Bitcoin for real world transactions would help greatly to determine its success because it depends on speculations which influences the price to attract new adoption and of which eventually matures into a utility use case upon the use of capital gains, to fund layer 2 solutions and other services and platforms.

The growth of Bitcoin as a real world utility will justify the reasons for speculation at any time, will reduce long term volatility, and will provide the demand that is needed for global widespread adoption.

Indeed, the purpose of bitcoin is as an option for means of payment but for now it is only one of the most benefits that bitcoin has.
Currently bitcoin is still one aspect for storage as well as hedging by prioritizing long-term investments.

Is that against the rules or could it hinder mass adoption? Of course not because it is precisely for now bitcoin is even much more famous to be used as a long-term investment because it is very good progress.

Not that it also violates the original planned goal but I think when conditions like this where there are equally good benefits it does not reduce the essence of bitcoin because precisely this can be a material for bitcoin to be increasingly recognized and adopted by many people in the end.

I will say that the success of bitcoin depends on all the factors you mentioned because real-world usage, speculation, trading and investment are all what will make bitcoin to succeed, and positive news also increases the adoption of bitcoin because as people talks good about bitcoin that is how more people begin to get interested and the awareness circulates abroad. Bitcoin was initially intended as a substitute to the fiat currency but as the awareness expands, people begin to use it to serve for different purposes. Bitcoin is bigger than one activity to influence its continuous growth, therefore in order to ascertain the relevance and acceptance of the digital asset, many factors have to come to play.

I guess it depends on what your definition of global is. To become mainstream, where every single merchant on the planet accepts or uses Bitcoin? You'll have to deal with governments trying to jail people whenever they use Bitcoin too, at least, not just encouraging people to spend their coins. As for me, I don't really want to spend my sats to pay for coffee.

In fact, I've been using Bitcoin as a means of payment for years now, mainly for digital products. It's easier and cheaper compared to the alternatives accessible to me. I think that's "global" enough for my use cases, so I don't expect crazy growth in the next few years or so.

I am convinced that you already know the answer to your question but just wanted to ask anyway. Alot of new adopters who are joining the Bitcoin community today are attracted to it because of its speculative nature. Their first point of interest is the fact that bitcoin can hold value for a long period of time. Bitcoin has indeed proven that it is a good store of value, however, volatility is one big challenge that is disuading bitcoiners from using it as an everyday payment currency. The investment or trading benefits has now somehow surpassed the actual purpose for which Bitcoin was created.

Speculative usage has often been described as the "entry drug" for investors into Bitcoin.

The "real adoption" could however come naturally if Bitcoin becomes a more reliable and less volatile store of value, just like gold, silver or ETFs today. If more and more people use Bitcoin to save long term, doing DCA and HODL strategies instead of simply riding bullish waves and trading the dips and spikes, then people become accustomed to Bitcoin and it will become a part of their financial life.

And then, eventually, they could want to spend some of their BTC. (Most longer term hodlers already are in that phase but it may take time.)

Imagine you are a gold hoarder and gold was as easy to spend as Bitcoin. Wouldn't you like to exchange it directly for some goods instead of having to pay fees to an exchange? Above all when the price looks good and you think you'd like to do yourself a favour and enjoy life a bit?

This could drive a virtuous cycle eventually, with more spending increasing liquidity, and that decreasing downward volatility. We will probably still see dips but not more "existential" 70-80% crashes. (At least in the case of Bitcoin, altcoins are another story.)

There is one catch: sometimes at least bigger Bitcoin payments are a headache due to tax laws, if you get a taxable event with every purchase like it occurs in several countries. Reliable, free and easy to use cointracking software would be paramount until Bitcoiners are strong enough to change these laws.

I agree with you and I believe real Bitcoin adoption is when people stop converting their BTC to regular currency and just spend it.

Adoption has been growing, but many parts of the world are still hesitant. Some countries worry about its impact on their economy, while others are concerned about volatility. Bitcoin offers everyone a choice where you can either use it as a store of value or as a means of payment. It's flexible and can be used in many different context. The idea of a real world use is just some made of statement. Anywhere money is involved, Bitcoin can be a substitute.

Not only are new adopters attracted to the speculative nature of bitcoin, but even veterans like us are attracted to it. We shouldn't just blame the new adopters because the truth is that bitcoin was used as a speculative asset by early adopters from the beginning. Bitcoin has not been widely used for its original purpose for the past 16 years.

We often give many reasons like because it is volatile, not legalized by the government but in reality, even if it was legalized. I believe not many people would want to use it as currency if it still had the potential to be profitable. Or to put it bluntly, we want to hold it and get rich from it, and that's why not many people want to spend it.

The truth is that Bitcoin has become popular and attractive to people because of its speculative nature, and I don't think this will change in the future.