Spending your BTC will not make you lose money. Laszlo was correct.

[d5000]

However, I wonder if the number of transactions would increase significantly even if BTC became a means of payment literally everywhere, because people have a very hard time deciding to spend something that in the future may have a much higher value than today.

If merchants find a way to hedge their Bitcoin risk, then they should have in many cases less costs for the payment itself, compared to credit cards and electronic wallets (PayPal-style) due to fees and exposition to chargebacks. That would enable them to offer Bitcoin-specific discounts and other promotions. I think once we reach that point where also the customers benefit directly from using Bitcoin for payments there could be a surge of these transactions.

The big elephant in the room is of course Bitcoin's high volatility as you have already written, and establishing a hedging strategy without recurring to a payment processor is still a challenge.

Best thing is actually if the merchants can afford to hold a small part of the Bitcoins as a reserve, so if they suffer losses due to a dip or bear market, they also can re-balance by selling in a situation with a higher price. They can however also use an exchange directly, which is often cheaper than processors.

For merchants offering digital goods and other goods with low marginal costs, or if they hold goods which are difficult to sell, a Bitcoin dip can be also a chance to increase sales volume: they can offer items for the "old" price before the dip as a kind of promotion. If they manage to increase their volume with that strategy they will have made profit in many situations.

[...] if we keep being too persistent they might get a bad impression of bitcoin
instead we should ask if they accept bitcoin if yes then great and if not then we should kindly recommend it to them

I don't really get this negativity of you and @fikrett regarding being persistent to recommend Bitcoin. "Kindly recommending" is always good, but if I was a merchant I would consider "being persistent" also a as a suggestion and as free help to make my own business more attractive for customers.

[MeGold666]

If it were oriented toward stability, it would already have an adaptive block size to ensure it works the same way when there is a high transaction count.

The only time Monero has really been tested with a large wave of transactions during last year’s spam attack, many users had to wait several hours for their transactions to confirm. Even at the peak of the spam attack, it was still only getting a fraction of Bitcoin’s average daily transaction volume, yet it still struggled with that much demand. As a remedy to the attack, developers even discussed limiting block sizes and allowing fees to increase.

The reason why adaptive block sizes aren’t adopted by Bitcoin is because it is not an effective scaling solution. Even with small blocks an high fees, we’ve seen that Inscription spam can be sustained for many months. Had block sizes been allowed to increase to keep fees low, the size of the blockchain might have grown exponentially to the point where nobody can run a node, like with BSV and other centralized networks.

Is it nice to lie? You either don't know the full story or are lying on purpose.

There was a bug in the wallet a long time ago, and I don't remember the details now, but it had something to do with the default fee not increasing when creating a transaction.

If you manually used a higher transaction fee - which was still close to nothing - you didn't have to wait.

This and some other bugs that allowed the spam have since been patched.

Bitcoin, on the other hand, has had this problem for over a decade, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
Even known bugs that are actively being exploited have not been fixed:

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/29187

Compare transaction fees and times when Bitcoin had the same transaction count as Monero.

This is a great scalability solution, but I bet you will spam another disinformation post just to make Bitcoin look good.

/Over&Out.

[cr1776]

I keep reading posts that @laszlo's pizza transaction was a big mistake. Or that you never should spend your Bitcoin but hodl, because you will lose the big opportunity for a phenomenal value increase of your BTC.

My only comment is that he doesn’t think it was a mistake.  He is a happy, nice guy.

[Lida93]

When I was new in the forum, I became confused because a hodler is being praised in the forum and in the same time, anyone who purchases with bitcoin will also be praised. It seems we don't know what we want for BTC.

I've also praised hodlers and still am doing it sometimes HODLing itself isn't harmful, as it's the equivalent to save money in the fiat world.

If we take a critical look it is clear that the  constant talked aspect of BTC is the investment side of it as a value added asset that if held for a long period of time would give you ROI than when you spend. This narrative being widely spread far greater than the spending has created not just the idea of committing something wrong but also fear of being left out in the future of digital gold currency like bitcoin.

 But as much as we're encouraged to hold, if we have a need to spend for a good or service where it's acceptable then it should be something worth doing because you can always buy back and continue with the stacking. It's not as though when you sell them there is no room to buy again, right!

[FinneysTrueVision]

Is it nice to lie? You either don't know the full story or are lying on purpose.

There was a bug in the wallet a long time ago, and I don't remember the details now, but it had something to do with the default fee not increasing when creating a transaction.

If you manually used a higher transaction fee - which was still close to nothing - you didn't have to wait.

This and some other bugs that allowed the spam have since been patched.

The automatic fee bug didn’t have anything to do with allowing the spam attack to occur. If it had worked properly it would have just made everyone’s fees more expensive, but there still would have been a backlog of unconfirmed transactions. The spammers didn’t exploit a wallet bug, but they did help expose it.

Only the aspects related to privacy have been improved upon, but flooding attacks are still possible. Any blockchain that is sufficiently decentralized will have scalability limitations. Even centralized blockchains like Solana and Ethereum L2’s with far greater transaction capacity than Bitcoin or Monero face congestion.

Bitcoin, on the other hand, has had this problem for over a decade, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
Even known bugs that are actively being exploited have not been fixed:

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/29187

Compare transaction fees and times when Bitcoin had the same transaction count as Monero.

This is a great scalability solution, but I bet you will spam another disinformation post just to make Bitcoin look good.

I’m the one spamming disinformation, yet you are the once citing crazy Luke Dashjr and his absurd propaganda as some kind of proof that there is a bug. This has already been discussed extensively by the community and developers and there wasn’t enough consensus to support Luke’s anti-spam measures. There was plenty of valid reasons given for why his proposal was rejected.

The CVE itself is tagged as disputed and has the following note: although this is a vulnerability from the perspective of the Bitcoin Knots project, some others consider it "not a bug."
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-50428

[ThemePen]

Laszlo was a hero until the price x50, x100, x2,000, x10,000, x40,000, x100,000, and so on. That's when people started looking at the price alone. Laszlo slowly became that clueless guy, an early adopter who wasted his precious coins on pizza.

Various publications continue to denigrate Laszlo until now as that man who bought two pizzas for 10,000BTC, emphasizing that those coins are worth hundreds of millions now.

The story of Laszlo is the story of Bitcoin, once a monetary technology offering freedom, now a new asset class worth investing and hodling. During Laszlo's time, adoption was about using Bitcoin as money. Today, adoption is about BlackRock offering Bitcoin spot ETF.

Despite that, Bitcoin remains the same, though. And it remains an option to celebrate Laszlo as that man who made the first real-world transaction using Bitcoin as payment. The day those pizzas were bought was the day Bitcoin was made a real-world money.

That is very interesting way to look at Laszlo story and how Bitcoin has changed. It is surprising how people opinions about Laszlo changed from thinking he was hero to making fun of him for spending 10000 BTC on pizzas which is now worth huge amount of money. But as you said Laszlo purchase was important moment in Bitcoin history it was first time someone used Bitcoin to buy something in real world. It is also worth noting how people understanding of Bitcoin has changed over time from seeing it as way to be free with money to seeing it as valuable investment. Even though people views on Bitcoin have changed it is still powerful tool for controlling your own money and Laszlo story reminds us that it can be used in real world.

[nutildah]

I keep reading posts that @laszlo's pizza transaction was a big mistake. Or that you never should spend your Bitcoin but hodl, because you will lose the big opportunity for a phenomenal value increase of your BTC.

My only comment is that he doesn’t think it was a mistake.  He is a happy, nice guy.

Two of the most important things to be as a human being, when possible.

Also, Laszlo will forever be remembered as a legend. 20 years from now, nobody will remember 99.99% of the Bitcoin Millionaires, but they will remember the extraordinary tale of Laszlo the Pizza Guy. What he accomplished on a mere whim one fateful afternoon will be taught in schools & universities around the world for decades to come. His greatness is legendary.

[AVE5]

A false narrative was formed over the years due to ever increasing bitcoin price that says "bitcoin is an investment" that is supposed to make you rich quickly! and that is the reason why people who follow this false narrative think if someone spends their coins, they'd make a mistake.

But bitcoin is money and because of that it is both a store of value like gold and medium of exchange like currencies (eg fiat). So it has to be used like both not just one. Not to mention that if someone spends something like 10 bucks worth of their bitcoins, that doesn't mean they've spent all their coins! It usually is only a small fraction of what they have. And that is not a mistake. It is a good thing actually, as OP points out.

The truth be told bitcoin worths is to aid values of goods and services by which it can't be useful if only holding.
And in other hand, bitcoin is a monetary technology which has potential trading values meaning as we holds, we also later alternate for exchange by payments.
When we also holds for Investments, that's of the purpose of increasing our incomes so as to obtain our needs.
Laszlo didn't lost his bitcoins for just pizza as the story goes but he paid for the pizza with his bitcoins. That's just to bring an attention that bitcoin is a Worth of financial value for exchange.

[john_egbert]

The truth be told bitcoin worths is to aid values of goods and services by which it can't be useful if only holding.
And in other hand, bitcoin is a monetary technology which has potential trading values meaning as we holds, we also later alternate for exchange by payments.
When we also holds for Investments, that's of the purpose of increasing our incomes so as to obtain our needs.
Laszlo didn't lost his bitcoins for just pizza as the story goes but he paid for the pizza with his bitcoins. That's just to bring an attention that bitcoin is a Worth of financial value for exchange.

He used Bitcoin as it was intended to be.

Now people see it more as a store of value due to how big BTC became.

[Lucius]

~snip~
Best thing is actually if the merchants can afford to hold a small part of the Bitcoins as a reserve, so if they suffer losses due to a dip or bear market, they also can re-balance by selling in a situation with a higher price. They can however also use an exchange directly, which is often cheaper than processors.

It's a good idea that would definitely make sense, but it would require sellers to be educated in at least the basics when it comes to secure storage and creating/sending transactions. The average seller at this moment does not want that responsibility, even at the cost of the costs of payment processors, which may not be that high in general.

In my country, there is a payment processor through which many online platforms accept payments with cryptocurrencies, it works and as far as I've seen, no one is complaining (so far).

I think legal obligations and taxes play a big role here, because the payment processor is the one that converts crypto to fiat, and the seller receives the fiat into their bank account. This approach obviously suits sellers all over the world, but perhaps that will change at some point.

[Z-tight]

I think one thing people should understand is that spending your BTC does not mean you are gonna spend every bit of it you have, once you try to encourage someone to spend their coins, they are always worried about what the price would be in sometime to come, but hey you're still going to have BTC then, because you aint spending it all now, just a few $.

That is the purpose of a hot wallet, to hold a few $ in BTC and this fund is for spending on the go, however what's in cold storage remains in there.

[Mayor of ogba]

Before anything can achieve success in this life, that thing will need someone to pave the way that will fuel it to achieve success and greatness. By reading the Bitcoin white paper, you will know that Bitcoin is destined for success and greatness, but it just needs someone to pave the way so that it can achieve success and greatness. What laszlo did by ordering 2 pizzas in exchange for 10,000 bitcoins placed value on bitcoin and sent a message that people can easily use their bitcoin as a medium of exchange to pay for a service rendered to them. Even though the 10,000 bitcoins Laszlo used to order 2 pizzas are worth millions of dollars now, we should know that Laszlo was one of the pioneers who helped bitcoin to achieve this success and greatness it has achieved now.

I keep reading posts that @laszlo's pizza transaction was a big mistake. Or that you never should spend your Bitcoin but hodl, because you will lose the big opportunity for a phenomenal value increase of your BTC.

My only comment is that he doesn’t think it was a mistake.  He is a happy, nice guy.

Yes, you are correct. Laszlo didn't exchange his 10,000 bitcoins for 2 pizzas because they were worth nothing; he just wanted to use bitcoin in exchange for food and show that bitcoin can be used as a digital medium of exchange. He was able to achieve it in the end, and it shows one of the reasons Satoshi created bitcoin. After Laszlo had exchanged 10,000 bitcoins for 2 pizzas, he still went ahead to say that if anyone can get him the upgraded extra-large pizzas, he can still throw in more bitcoins.