Is bitcoin gradually turning away from its purpose?

[Perfectbaby]

Like the title explained it all when sighting towards the speculation or trade discussion section I mostly found out that lots of people are gradually turn away the purpose of bitcoin to mainly investment purposes and I mean to asked, was bitcoin created for investment purpose or it's for peer to peer to alternate fiat?

I would love to see different versions of input.

[Hatchy]

Bitcoin isn't turning away from its purpose at all mate. Infact, it is advancing and growing massively in different aspects compared to what it was initially created for. If you check the Bitcoin white paper, you will clearly see that Bitcoin was created as a decentralized p2p payment alternative. But with such great technology, you don't expect it to stop there. You as an investor can choose to use it for what ever purpose you want to, either as a long term investment plan or a payment option. But the truth is that bitcoin hasn't shifted a bit from its initial purpose of creation.

[_act_]

was bitcoin created for investment purpose or it's for peer to peer to alternate fiat?

Satoshi Nakamoto knew that the price of bitcoin will be increasing as people are buying it. That is why he made it has a limited supply of just 21 million BTC. It may not be in the white paper that bitcoin can be for investment purpose, but Satoshi Nakamoto clearly knew it would be like that. Money should be a store of value like bitcoin.

[royalfestus]

I believe the primary purpose of Bitcoin is to decentralize currency, making it accessible to everyone globally, enabling fast and anonymous transactions. In the long run, investing in Bitcoin appears to be a viable use, as holding through bull markets tends to be more profitable than using it solely for transactions.

[muncuss]

It is already happened years ago. Btc it self still can be used as payment but people prefer it as a speculative asset which i guess it with other thing like limited supply and crazy fees (sometimes) strengthen the view

[kotajikikox]

Like the title explained it all when sighting towards the speculation or trade discussion section I mostly found out that lots of people are gradually turn away the purpose of bitcoin to mainly investment purposes and I mean to asked, was bitcoin created for investment purpose or it's for peer to peer to alternate fiat?

Bitcoin was created by Satoshi as an alternative to fiat however its unique and innovative features offer more than that. It can be used as a place to hold your money in fighting against your currency going through inflation and it can also be an investment opportunity.

It turned into an investment opportunity simply because many people find bitcoin to have potential. They see it and now they are making off profits by selling it to those who want some bitcoin. You can do anything you want with bitcoin, truthfully. Use it as an alternative currency or use it as an investment tool, it’s all up to you.

[thecodebear]

Nope of course it isn't turning away. But using it to buy things only happens when the network is huge, because merchants need enough people to have it and want to buy things with it to bother adopting it for payments. And the thing that Satoshi coded in to make people want to have it is, in addition to its fundamentals as digital currency, its scarcity. Investment is the first use case, then as growth slows down it just becomes the best way to save money, no longer really an "investment", just a savings account. Only at that point, once lots of people own it, does it make sense for merchants to adopt it. Paying for stuff is the final stage of its growth.

Remember this is something that is organically growing from one person to global usage. The only way for it to grow is gradually phase to phase with transactional currency being the final stage. Once it seems like it is meeting its purpose, that means it has already achieved mass adoption.

[legiteum]

Today, Bitcoin is a speculation instrument and almost nothing else.

Bitcoin was originally created for one reason, which is to thwart government subpoenas and visibility into transactions. Because of the public ledger, Bitcoin transactions are ultimately trackable, so that really never worked out.

Today, almost all holders of Bitcoin do so with an app or a broker who holds their holdings in some centralized database. Bitcoin is absolutely not "decentralized" for almost all of its holders today, showing that almost all users really don't care about "decentralization". All they care about is that their investment goes up in value, just like investors of any other stock or ETF.

I wouldn't call something that has already happened and started happening five years ago, "gradual" though.

[OcTradism]

Like the title explained it all when sighting towards the speculation or trade discussion section I mostly found out that lots of people are gradually turn away the purpose of bitcoin to mainly investment purposes and I mean to asked, was bitcoin created for investment purpose or it's for peer to peer to alternate fiat?

Bitcoin will have no value and nobody will invest their money in Bitcoin if it does not have good utility.

There are people who use bitcoins daily but there are people who less use their bitcoin and not on daily frequency. Bitcoin block explorer shows there are more than 700k transactions (707,910 transactions) from 03 June 2024 to 04 June 2024.
https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/transactions?q=time%282024-06-03%2002%3A32%3A35...2024-06-04%2002%3A32%3A35%29

There are people who have demand to use Bitcoin blockchain for transactions, fund movements.

Alternate or replace fiat is not purpose of Bitcoin. Its existence is for people to use bitcoin together with other payment methods.

[Sonia_123]

Bitcoin is not turning away from its purpose of creation .
The reason of so much investment in it ,is because of its value that has a higher exchange rate which now makes it very comfortable for investors to invest in it , because the believe that as the value gets higher gradually,they tend to make more profit from it when being accumulated and stored for a long-term, rather than keep your money in the bank with little or no interest ,and because of these alot of persons wants to invest in Bitcoin which now makes the demand to be high.

[Z-tight]

Another thread asking the same thing, this post^[1] was also created a few days ago, with the same question. I don't know what gives you guys the impression that BTC is turning away from its purpose, or maybe it is you who's been having the wrong purpose or goal of BTC in mind. BTC is p2p digital cash that is an alternative currency to fiat, but people can as well decide for themselves what they want to do with their BTC without requiring permission from you, and that does not change the original purpose why BTC was created.

[1] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5498206.msg64143275#msg64143275

[retreat]

When more people trade Bitcoin, compared to transacting it, it is not Bitcoin turning away from its intended purpose, but it is just one of the impacts of the development of the Bitcoin market. Even though more people trade it, there are still many users who transact with it for their various needs, so I think that Bitcoin has not changed from its true purpose, only the attitude of many people is treating Bitcoin more as a trading instrument that can give them profits. That's just a difference in attitude towards Bitcoin, whether you trade it or transact it, both are fine.

[zabzob]

In itself, bitcoin doesn't have any absolute purpose. It's an algorithm, a protocol and nothing more. Its purpose or purposes are whatever purposes its users assign to it. As some in this thread have said, it has become a speculative instrument for some. (And this is surely the main cause of its rise in price to levels that most wouldn't have believed possible some years ago.) For others, it continues to be an alternative to fiat, banks, and everything that comes along with those things. And yes there are still ways of using it to gain a degree of anonymity or pseudonymity in one's transactions, no matter how much governments try to make it traceable.

And there are many other purposes, all sorts of creative ways to use bitcoin.

[Apocollapse]

Do you only use Bitcoin as a currency? if you didn't completely use Bitcoin as a currency and choose to use it as store of value, I don't see any reason why you're creating this thread. It's not make sense when someone care with something but they're actually the one who didn't care with it in the first place.

Bitcoin was originally created for one reason, which is to thwart government subpoenas and visibility into transactions. Because of the public ledger, Bitcoin transactions are ultimately trackable, so that really never worked out.

It can work, as long as people didn't link their coins with their identity, the banks only know there's outflow and inflow in their accounts, but the banks will never know if if they buy or sell Bitcoin. Another choice is don't use banks, directly trade BTC to cash.

[pooya87]

Anything that has a value and that value increases A LOT during its lifespan is going to attract a lot of investors. That doesn't mean that thing stopped being what it was meant to be. Bitcoin is one of those things. Just because people are enjoying their increased "purchasing power" as their money (ie. Bitcoin) is increasing in value, it doesn't mean Bitcoin is no longer money.

An important thing to remember during your "observations" is that just because you see a lot of speculators on the internet, that doesn't mean they represent the entire bitcoin community. This category of people are the most vocal so they are seen the most as well.
Other groups (like those who use bitcoin to increase their privacy) are intentionally silent and will remain private. So it may look like they don't exist.

[mindrust]

That happens to every popular currency. Many people in my country still “invest” in the USD for example. USD is a currency, people use currencies to buy stuff, to send money, investing in a currency usually doesn’t make any sense unless your own national currency is completely crap.

Some people trade or invest in btc for that reason too. It is because they know the USD is also crap and its days are numbered. Compared to USD, BTC is far superior money and people can see that easily. Since its inception btc’s purchasing power went only up while USD’s purchasing power has been going down for decades.

[MusaMohamed]

Anything that has a value and that value increases A LOT during its lifespan is going to attract a lot of investors.

Bitcoin is an inspiring and attractive story for taking risk, investing with few cents, holding it 5 or 10 years and becoming millionaires or billionaires. It's very easy to tell story from the past but people who did not take risk, did not invest in the past can not understand story they are telling. It is only click bait story if they did not experience it and did not understand risk, uncertainty on future of Bitcoin in past years.

Bitcoin x pizza story, a man sold a family house to all in invested in bitcoin and are traveling around the world, many stories can be told but only people in those stories understand what happened.

That doesn't mean that thing stopped being what it was meant to be. Bitcoin is one of those things. Just because people are enjoying their increased "purchasing power" as their money (ie. Bitcoin) is increasing in value, it doesn't mean Bitcoin is no longer money.

People who has and use bitcoins can change their styles but Bitcoin blockchain is itself and it simply does its Proof of Work confirmations for people transactions.

What is style change in using bitcoin, the satoshi per dollar chart shows that Bitcoin is recognized more and gaining higher value.

That happens to every popular currency. Many people in my country still “invest” in the USD for example. USD is a currency, people use currencies to buy stuff, to send money, investing in a currency usually doesn’t make any sense unless your own national currency is completely crap.

In cryptocurrency market, some people say they invest in stable coins.

USD has its value is 1 USD = 1 USD, sorry this example is funny like 1 bitcoin = 1 bitcoin, it's true forever. The exchange value of 1 bitcoin or 1 USD to another national fiat currency can be different with time. It's exchange value, exchange ratio with another fiat currency will depend on many factors, like demand and supply balance, national economic situations in two countries (USA and that country).

[tabas]

Let's have a glimpse of a part from the Bitcoin whitepaper.

[...]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[...]

Having that said, if someone buys from any other seller through P2P or even an exchange, this word has been fulfilled by that transaction. And whatever the receiver want to do with the received Bitcoins, it's already on his own term. So, if someone wants to hold it for so long as an asset or store of value, it doesn't matter anymore and no longer someone's business. With all of the years of Bitcoin's existence, due to its volatility, the use of it has improved and we should be happy that it's a flexible financial instrument that can function more than fiat.

[Pi-network314159]

Like the title explained it all when sighting towards the speculation or trade discussion section I mostly found out that lots of people are gradually turn away the purpose of bitcoin to mainly investment purposes and I mean to asked, was bitcoin created for investment purpose or it's for peer to peer to alternate fiat?

I can see that you are a newbie and may not know the functions of bitcoin. When talking about P2P is just a kind of way of transactions either buy selling your coin for fiat in the Cex or P2P on decentralized system as a form of payment of goods, but bitcoin function is beyond that. The P2P is just the normal transaction. but bitcoin is more beneficial when we invest in bitcoin for a longer period. Bitcoin is a great store of value just like the way people save fiat in the bank and yet it doesn't yeild profit, bitcoin investment makes more profit in the long run.

[iBaba]

Bitcoin isn't turning away from its purpose at all mate. Infact, it is advancing and growing massively in different aspects compared to what it was initially created for. If you check the Bitcoin white paper, you will clearly see that Bitcoin was created as a decentralized p2p payment alternative. But with such great technology, you don't expect it to stop there. You as an investor can choose to use it for what ever purpose you want to, either as a long term investment plan or a payment option. But the truth is that bitcoin hasn't shifted a bit from its initial purpose of creation.

I also don't see the derailment in the Bitcoin technology as far as the investment in Bitcoin is concerned. The truth of the matter is that everyone will expect that as the decentralized technology is growing and advancing there would be such kind of great investment opportunities that will be tied around it. So, investment in Bitcoin is just another advancement that has helped the system grow more rapidly and positively because even the government officials who are fighting the system are investing in it from the back door.

Like you mentioned earlier, the decentralized p2p payment and transaction alternative have grown over time to get the attention of top investors who have found the investment opportunity in it and have utilized it properly.