Bitcoin: an Electronic Cash System

[Darker45]

Satoshi's invention is an electronic system. Nowadays, however, you can easily notice how the emphasis on "electronic" is omitted.

I don't think bitcoin is an electronic system...

Well, I meant electronic cash system.

That is, mass adoption, when the purchase of a cup of coffee or ice cream can be paid for bitcoin, is this not the goal we should strive for now?

I believe the success of adoption is when every person is transacting with Bitcoin by paying for their goods in supermarkets, stores, and malls via electronic transfer regardless if it is face-to-face or not.

I don't think it is. Again, Bitcoin is kind of superfluous in a face to face transaction if you have the option to use cash. The cash system provides you instant, anonymous, and peer-to-peer payment system. But if you've got no option, then Bitcoin is the way to go. 

But Satoshi clearly designed it with "online payments" in mind.

How so? What design choices would have been different if Bitcoin was more of a real life electronic payment method? 1 minute confirmation time? I think Satoshi had other reasons to choose 10 minutes, like ensuring stability of the network.

The very first sentence of the whitepaper goes: "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"

Electronic money is both the money of the Internet and the money for real life spending because physical commerce is digitalized, so Bitcoin shouldn't try to focus only on the Internet.

For as long as cash is still around, I guess cash is the better payment option in face to face transactions. When the time comes that cash system dies and is replaced with a CBDC or other digital ways, then indeed Bitcoin, as an electronic cash system, will replace it as the best option.

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[kkofor]

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?

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.

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.

I don't see any problem paying with BTC face-to-face.  It is an add-on feature, instead of paying with cash, you pay with Bitcoin.  And I think it is a positive sign the Bitcoin can be used as payment not only online or what so ever.

From the definition, an electronic transfer does not necessarily means you must order an item online and pay for it with Bitcoin.  You can still do electronic transfers when you buy some snacks in a convenience store that accepts electronic transfers.

I believe the success of adoption is when every person is transacting with Bitcoin by paying for their goods in supermarkets, stores, and malls via electronic transfer regardless if it is face-to-face or not.

You know what, paying with Bitcoin in person is just cool! It's like being a part of the future right now. No more fumbling around with cash or worrying about if your card's gonna work. Just whip out your phone, scan the QR code and boom! You're done.

And the best part? You're not just limited to online shopping. You can buy snacks at a convenience store or pick up some groceries and pay with ease. Imagine walking into a store and paying with Bitcoin just like that. No banks, no fees, no worries. That's the kind of future we're talking about here.

So let's spread the word and get everyone on board. The more people see the convenience of using Bitcoin for everyday purchases, the faster we'll get to that future we all want. Let's do this!

[Daltonik]

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]

Well, now it is also possible to make a Bitcoin request from ChatGPT and he replies that bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that allows peer-to-peer transactions without intermediaries such as banks. Here, since we are not talking about a device but about a currency, I do not see a difference between digital and electronic.

[so98nn]

Every time it opens up new meaning when we read about bitcoin and Satoshi angles.  They are different for different mind sets and nothing wrong in that. At the end of day, it’s smooth adoption and use case matters a lot. Many of them would say it is self sustaining, it is made to work like that, it is fail Safe. However, it won’t work if no one is using it.

So whether e-commerce injects bitcoin with their transacting power or not, an individual system must be under process all the time. For example, peer to peer transacting shall be focused but in decentralised way. There should be little to no reliance on third party involvement for completion of transactions. I think that way bitcoin and what was thought about it by Satoshi would accomplish in the long future to come.

[BlackHatCoiner]

I'm pretty sure Satoshi had heard of the Gresham's law of money. In fact, he did mention a "digital gold" metaphor quite a lot of times in this very board. What matters is that it's still used for what it was intended; cheap P2P transactions, without middlemen.

For as long as cash is still around, I guess cash is the better payment option in face to face transactions.

I'd say that it's only better in terms of privacy and instantaneous confirmation time, but over all, Bitcoin is better money. Easier to verify, easier to divide, easier to protect. Okay, maybe not the last one for the most part.