Different usage of Bitcoin

[Youngrebel]

Bitcoin has been existing for so many years now and different people use it in different ways and every one has a reason for adopting it and when Bitcoin is mentioned, the first thing that usually comes to most of our minds is buying and holding it as an investment but it far more that that Bitcoin can actually be used for more than just trying to make a profit from it have actually see so many people use it to send money across borders, receive payments, make donations, or make transactions without relying entirely on local banking systems, and in some countries, the ability to access your money internationally can be very useful most especially when banking services is limited or expensive.

There are individual buyers, long term holders, businesses, and people who use Bitcoin for payments or as an alternative to keep their money away from banks and if more holders continue accumulating and holding, and that also makes people to adopt bitcoin and it keeps growing as new investors are coming.

So what do you personally feel is the most useful purpose of Bitcoin besides investment, and what useful case do you think deserves more attention?

[Leon Zimmer]

I still believe that BTC has many uses besides being just a coin that speculators trade. Remittances via BTC & LN is a huge one. It deserves more mentions IMO. Millions of migrant workers use Western Union/MoneyGram etc. to send money to their families abroad paying 6-8% in fees, sometimes more, or the transfer doesn't go thru, especially to countries with capital controls/weak banking, for each transaction that takes days to complete. Using BTC/LN reduces the friction nearly to zero, takes mins to complete, & would help families in Lagos or Manila much more than it helps traders.

[Nrcewker]

people use it to send money across borders, receive payments, make donations, or make transactions without relying entirely on local banking systems,

These are some of the foolish things I have seen people do with Bitcoin. I mean we all know that the supply of Bitcoin is fixed and we also know how valuable these coins are. Instead of accumulating them, people are just spending them?

This is like a barter system where you give away gold to get a TV in exchange. There is no doubt that Bitcoin has excellent potential as a payment method, but treating it as a digital asset has more value than using it purely as a payment method. Personally, I believe in HODLing my coins. I have seen Bitcoin grow from 400$ to over the 100k usd mark. So instead of spending it, I do rather hold it and potentially make good profits in the future.

[Charles-Tim]

These are some of the foolish things I have seen people do with Bitcoin. I mean we all know that the supply of Bitcoin is fixed and we also know how valuable these coins are. Instead of accumulating them, people are just spending them?

The main reason stated on the white paper is that bitcoin can be used for P2P transactions, but you posted that it is foolish. If I want to send money to a friend abroad within 30 minutes or less than 1 hour and I convert fiat to bitcoin and send it to him in bitcoin. Is that foolish? Or maybe I want to send money to someone, but I do not have the necessary fiat, but he agrees to accept bitcoin which I have. Is that also foolish? I have made a payment before that I was unable to use fiat for it. Is that also foolish? You can easily convert fiat to bitcoin.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

every one has a reason for adopting it

Bitcoin can actually be used for more than just trying to make a profit from it


So what do you personally feel is the most useful purpose of Bitcoin besides investment, and what useful case do you think deserves more attention?

Since everyone has a reason why they adopted Bitcoin, every purpose that it's being adopted for is very useful, mate. Every user is needed to drive the demand and circulation of Bitcoin. If you think one user case deserves more attention than the other, how do you force more attention in that direction? Meanwhile everyone will still adopt Bitcoin based on what they want to do with it. Assuming someone wants to buy and just hold for the sake of making profit, you can not force them to spend it, can you? While if someone doesn't also want to hold but only buys Bitcoin when ever they want to send money to someone in another country, you can not force them to hold.

So, it's not about the user case that deserves more attention, everyone has their reason for buying Bitcoin and you can not decide what they do with it, neither can you force more attention to only one purpose it should be used for.

[KiaKia]

I still believe that BTC has many uses besides being just a token that speculators trade. Remittances via BTC & LN is a huge one. It deserves more mentions IMO. Millions of migrant workers use Western Union/MoneyGram etc. to send money to their families abroad paying 6-8% in fees, sometimes more, or the transfer doesn't go thru, especially to countries with capital controls/weak banking, for each transaction that takes days to complete. Using BTC/LN reduces the friction nearly to zero, takes mins to complete, & would help families in Lagos or Manila much more than it helps traders.

Someone had to correct you mate, Bitcoin is never a token, Bitcoin is a coin that operates on its own independent Blockchain and tokens are digital assets that are build on top a existing Blockchain.

Bitcoin was never built on top of another Blockchain, you should do your own research before believing that you truly understand something, don't just assume please always verify first.

Every other points you said are true, Bitcoin is more than justified some speculative digital asset, it can be used as cross border payment and it can also be used as store of value.

[Sunshine1525]

These are some of the foolish things I have seen people do with Bitcoin. I mean we all know that the supply of Bitcoin is fixed and we also know how valuable these coins are. Instead of accumulating them, people are just spending them?

The main reason stated on the white paper is that bitcoin can be used for P2P transactions, but you posted that it is foolish. If I want to send money to a friend abroad within 30 minutes or less than 1 hour and I convert fiat to bitcoin and send it to him in bitcoin. Is that foolish? Or maybe I want to send money to someone, but I do not have the necessary fiat, but he agrees to accept bitcoin which I have. Is that also foolish? I have made a payment before that I was unable to use fiat for it. Is that also foolish? You can easily convert fiat to bitcoin.

Initially that was the intention of Satoshi, a P2P currency but can see that the level of adoption has made Bitcoin become very valuable therefore people in their masses now see it more as a store of value than just a peer-to-peer electronic currency. Well everyone has the right to do whatever they want with their Bitcoin.

While some choose to speculative with it, spend it on less profitable things etc, those who believe in Bitcoin’s potential choose to use it as a store of value by holding. Dude you're never foolish to transact with Bitcoin, remember that it's an alternative means of transaction even though people are now encouraged to hold it longer.

[freedomgo]

I think we often forget about the merchant side. Bitcoin can be very useful, especially when transactions involve people from different countries, because you can just send BTC directly when buying something without relying too much on banks or payment processors.

Of course, everyone knows about Bitcoin's volatility, so anyone accepting it as a merchant also needs to understand that risk and be willing to deal with it. They can always convert it to fiat after receiving the payment if they do not want to hold it. For me, this is an important part of Bitcoin's actual use. If everyone only holds and nobody is willing to use it for payments, then where would the real demand for using Bitcoin as money come from?

[Donneski]

Bitcoin was primarily introduced as a digital money that allows users transact directly with one another without relying on a central authority or trusted third-party financial institution. But how it functions in reality today is a bit different so the most useful purpose of Bitcoin is mostly dependent on the kind of financial problem you're tryna solve with Bitcoin. For some people today, Bitcoin is majorly treated as an investment asset while for others, it's mostly used as a payment medium especially for cross-border transactions because of how seamless it is. All these are very valid means of Bitcoin usage.

But if there's any useful case of Bitcoin that deserves attention, I think it's surely the use of it for everyday transactions. Since we don't need a third-party interference, we should push towards making Bitcoin a more global currency in our daily transactions that the current ratio.

[Charles-Tim]

Initially that was the intention of Satoshi, a P2P currency but can see that the level of adoption has made Bitcoin become very valuable therefore people in their masses now see it more as a store of value than just a peer-to-peer electronic currency. Well everyone has the right to do whatever they want with their Bitcoin.

While some choose to speculate with it, spend it on less profitable things and so on, those who believe in Bitcoin’s potential choose to use it as a store of value by holding. Dude you're never foolish to transact with Bitcoin, remember that it's an alternative means of transaction even though people are now encouraged to hold it longer.

You did not understand what I posted very well. What I posted is about using bitcoin for transactions like payment or sending it to someone like family, that does not mean the person is not investing in it. I used bitcoin for payment of something does not mean I am not accumulating bitcoin right now.

[Agbe]

These are some of the foolish things I have seen people do with Bitcoin. I mean we all know that the supply of Bitcoin is fixed and we also know how valuable these coins are. Instead of accumulating them, people are just spending them?

This is like a barter system where you give away gold to get a TV in exchange. There is no doubt that Bitcoin has excellent potential as a payment method, but treating it as a digital asset has more value than using it purely as a payment method. Personally, I believe in HODLing my coins. I have seen Bitcoin grow from 400$ to over the 100k usd mark. So instead of spending it, I do rather hold it and potentially make good profits in the future.

 I don't know if you have read the whitepaper or heard it in the forum that the core reason of Satoshi Nakamoto creating bitcoin was to buy and sell goods and services online and that is why it is called digital currency. If the supply is fixed or limited, it is only the p2p can make it cycling around the world but hodling it down in one place will make the supply come to an end. And it is when the p2p is fully utilize that miners will have a large rigs.

People are praying day and night for the different country government to adopt bitcoin as their legal tender so that citizens will use bitcoin as their p2p transaction daily and every second and you are calling it a "foolish thing". I don't know what to say on this. I saw your comment but I was like why?

[BlackBoss_]

So what do you personally feel is the most useful purpose of Bitcoin besides investment, and what useful case do you think deserves more attention?

Bitcoin has many use cases and only list those use cases is not enough, as it's important to explorer in more details. Rather than mention about use cases, I would like to share these articles for further reading.

I believe these resources can educate newbies about Bitcoin, its use cases, its revolution, and its bullish future.
The bullish case for Bitcoin.
Bitcoin: the accounting revolution that shook the world.
An accounting revolution.
Bitcoin and the Dunbar limit.
How cryptography redefines private property.

[Leon Zimmer]

Someone had to correct you mate, Bitcoin is never a token, Bitcoin is a coin that operates on its own independent Blockchain and tokens are digital assets that are build on top a existing Blockchain.

Bitcoin was never built on top of another Blockchain, you should do your own research before believing that you truly understand something, don't just assume please always verify first.

Every other points you said are true, Bitcoin is more than justified some speculative digital asset, it can be used as cross border payment and it can also be used as store of value.

Very true, remittances is a usecase that gets underrated I think. My only qualm is whether or not people in those countries can easily use a crypto exchange in their respective countries. Sure, LN settles very fast but if the exchange is not optimal, either in terms of KYC, liquidity, etc., then that negates the benefit of "near zero cost".

True as well. Calling BTC as "token" is a mistake which I corrected in my previous post. Exchanges and some wallets classify BTC along with other ERC-20 tokens. Its not uncommon to see BTC in the same screen as ERC-20 tokens. So its understandable that newer users make this mistake but its by no means a correct usage of the word.

[Lucius]

~snip~
So what do you personally feel is the most useful purpose of Bitcoin besides investment, and what useful case do you think deserves more attention?

It is logical that the most important thing is the decentralized side, which means that each user can be their own bank and receive and send transactions whenever they want. Therefore, I do not see that there was anything more important than the fact that Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency, although most of those who invest in it only want to profit from a possible price increase.

However, everyone is free to use Bitcoin in any way they see fit - some even send their coins to burn addresses, thus attracting the attention of others who do not consider them normal. Honestly, I don't care what someone else does with their money, as long as it doesn't harm others.

[Frankolala]

Satoshi created bitcoin to give financial freedom to people so that, they no longer rely on intermidiary to help them carry out their transactions but use p2p method and I feel that's the most important thing about bitcoin. This was why Satoshi made it to be decentralized. However, due to the increase in adoption rate that led to the increase in value, some investors have seen it as a store of value and invested into bitcoin to preserve their wealth because the Fiat system has been a failure in keeping value.

[SilverCryptoBullet]

It is logical that the most important thing is the decentralized side, which means that each user can be their own bank and receive and send transactions whenever they want. Therefore, I do not see that there was anything more important than the fact that Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency, although most of those who invest in it only want to profit from a possible price increase.

Another thing that is very important is cryptography that makes Bitcoin private keys are very secure and can not be brute forced from a public address or a public key. Without this factor, only decentralized side is not enough to make bitcoin as a favorite asset to use by many people. Bitcoin blockchain is decentralized means there is no arbitrary and non sensible centralized change by a person or a group of people, and no censorship against Bitcoin transactions.

I agree about important role of decentralized side but to summarize, the cryptography used to make Bitcoin has its important contribution too.

[OsaiEmma]

So what do you personally feel is the most useful purpose of Bitcoin besides investment, and what useful case do you think deserves more attention?

This question is subjective. Satoshi came up with a brilliant idea, which is to create a p2p payment system that eliminates the need and trust in a centralized intermediary to process this payment. This also created the possibility of full asset control—which is basically self custody. These are real utility, but this is not attractive to the majority of users out there. I'm pretty sure that, if Bitcoin just stopped at this, most people would likely use it just for international remittance and not day-to-day payments, because we do have a lot of electronic payment systems for shopping that is arguably doing better than Bitcoin in that regard. If that were the case, we would have fewer holder, fewer whales, and a significantly lower price. This will be a problem especially to miners—but I guess the difficulty won't be as high as it is now 🤷🏽‍♂️.

The fact that Bitcoin is a store of value—with its fixed supply and difficulty in mining—it became truly an attractive gem. Miners are encouraged to keep on mining seeing the price will go up—as a reason of it being a speculative asset. So...I think the most useful utility of Bitcoin is it being a store of value, even though this shouldn't be the case.

[hmbdofficial]

So what do you personally feel is the most useful purpose of Bitcoin besides investment, and what useful case do you think deserves more attention?

For me Apart from investment, one of the useful purposes of bitcoin is just the basic sending and receiving money without depending fully on any banking institution. Sending bitcoin across borders without the banks being involved have always being useful for remittances, payment and donations especially where international banking services are slow and expensive.

Another aspect I’ll like to talk about it proper self custody with bitcoin. It’s actually need to be pain more attention to so a person can hold their own private key instead of keeping funds on exchange or even banks. Of course this comes with so many responsibilities for securing the keys.

[Nrcewker]

These are some of the foolish things I have seen people do with Bitcoin. I mean we all know that the supply of Bitcoin is fixed and we also know how valuable these coins are. Instead of accumulating them, people are just spending them?

The main reason stated on the white paper is that bitcoin can be used for P2P transactions, but you posted that it is foolish.

I don’t know if you have read the whitepaper or heard it in the forum that the core reason of Satoshi Nakamoto creating bitcoin was to buy and sell goods and services online and that is why it is called digital currency.

I am not saying that the P2P use case itself is foolish. I am calling those people foolish who are spending this scarce asset like Bitcoin, on ordinary goods when they have an alternative currency available for the same freaking transaction.

The white paper explains the reason why Bitcoin was designed that is for peer-to-peer transactions without relying on a trusted third party. But that doesnt mean people cannot evolve and change the use case according to the economic conditions. Also the white paper doesnt explicitly state that every Bitcoin holder is mandated to spend their coins. Hence, I called them foolish. They have opportunity to make money from these valuable coins, but instead of holding they are deciding to spend it.

[Shadiq]

people use it to send money across borders, receive payments, make donations, or make transactions without relying entirely on local banking systems,

These are some of the foolish things I have seen people do with Bitcoin. I mean we all know that the supply of Bitcoin is fixed and we also know how valuable these coins are. Instead of accumulating them, people are just spending them?

Do you know the main purpose of Bitcoin or do you know the purpose of Satoshi Nakamoto? The main purpose of Bitcoin invention was to launch a financial system without third-party intervention that will support P2P. You can find out about it by looking at the white paper.

So if a person completes a transaction with Bitcoin when necessary, then I see no reason to call him a fool. Bitcoin is a financial system that supports P2P before it becomes an asset. So if you ignore the transaction system and only see Bitcoin as an asset, then you are making a mistake yourself. Everyone has the freedom to use Bitcoin, so it is better for us not to make harsh comments about who is using Bitcoin for what purpose.