"- Hijacking Bitcoin’s narrative and roadmap to make it non-competitive as a P2P medium of exchange."
I think this is more complicated than just government action, and involves many private sector actors, as well as people within the bitcoin community who identify it as "digital gold"... A phrasing that implicitly excludes bitcoin as a medium of exchange.
What happened is that pre-usable Lightning (basically, any time in the past) it was barely possible to actually use Bitcoin as a medium of exchange... which was, 100% the original idea, and don't let Saylor tell you otherwise...
Back in ~2013-2014 you had a real push to try to get people and merchants to actually use bitcoin for purchases. Like SoapMiner (nprofile…4az7) today you had people selling stuff like Alpaca wool sweaters, etc, advertising on places like the BitcoinTalk forums. You had some coffeeshops and bars that accepted bitcoin pop up in various places in the world.
But it wasn't easy. The UX sucked, transactions on the L1 are inherently slow, and (here's where we get to government) the tax requirements are ridiculous. Even today, despite the "pro-Bitcoin president," you're *legally obligated* to calculate capital gains taxes on a cup of coffee. Doesn't matter the cost, $4 transaction, you've got to break out the spreadsheet and calculate FIFO/LIFO on it.
So all of these factors combine so that by ~2015-2016, VC money was all going to "blockchain not bitcoin," Ethereum, alternative blockchains, etc. Fintech was "hot" but it wasn't about replacing the dollar, it was about using your phone to pay with your existing Visa/MasterCard.
Globe99
npub147…paq44
2025-03-25 16:38:37
in reply to nevent1q…q4t3
Author Public Key
npub147fp2j606qpfysp38phhzvempt7ewsdqwm6uww9uycp6tdvavu0s5paq44Published at
2025-03-25 16:38:37Event JSON
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"kind": 1,
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"content": "\"- Hijacking Bitcoin’s narrative and roadmap to make it non-competitive as a P2P medium of exchange.\"\n\nI think this is more complicated than just government action, and involves many private sector actors, as well as people within the bitcoin community who identify it as \"digital gold\"... A phrasing that implicitly excludes bitcoin as a medium of exchange.\n\nWhat happened is that pre-usable Lightning (basically, any time in the past) it was barely possible to actually use Bitcoin as a medium of exchange... which was, 100% the original idea, and don't let Saylor tell you otherwise...\n\nBack in ~2013-2014 you had a real push to try to get people and merchants to actually use bitcoin for purchases. Like nostr:nprofile1qythwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnswf5k6ctv9ehx2ap0qy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9uq32amnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwv3sk6atn9e5k7tcpz3mhxue69uhkzmr8duh82arcduhx7mn99uq35amnwvaz7tmpveexjcmp9ehx7um5wghx5mmzw4exwtcprpmhxue69uhnzwfj9ccnvwpwx5hrwde6xsurgwp0qyv8wumn8ghj7ct59ehx7um5wfmk7untwvhxxmmd9uq3zamnwvaz7te3xsczue3h0ghxjme0qywhwumn8ghj7ct8v4h8gmmjv9hxwefwdehhxarjxyhxxmmd9uq36amnwvaz7tejxdnk6apwdehhxarj9e6x2cmgdehkcmm80yhsqgqskenqevr4f0acjfj5whtk0q6eaaz7c5nh352zv8gh6rfuk4g8muqn4az7 today you had people selling stuff like Alpaca wool sweaters, etc, advertising on places like the BitcoinTalk forums. You had some coffeeshops and bars that accepted bitcoin pop up in various places in the world.\n\nBut it wasn't easy. The UX sucked, transactions on the L1 are inherently slow, and (here's where we get to government) the tax requirements are ridiculous. Even today, despite the \"pro-Bitcoin president,\" you're *legally obligated* to calculate capital gains taxes on a cup of coffee. Doesn't matter the cost, $4 transaction, you've got to break out the spreadsheet and calculate FIFO/LIFO on it.\n\nSo all of these factors combine so that by ~2015-2016, VC money was all going to \"blockchain not bitcoin,\" Ethereum, alternative blockchains, etc. Fintech was \"hot\" but it wasn't about replacing the dollar, it was about using your phone to pay with your existing Visa/MasterCard.",
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