Bitcoin was described as a “Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” in Satoshi’s whitepaper, one that “would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.”
Despite this clear core proposition, over the years many competing narratives have come to the fore. Perhaps the strongest being ‘digital gold’: don’t spend $BTC, save it and watch your investment grow.
Admittedly, this proposition reflects an understanding of Bitcoin’s status as sound money: as a commodity whose supply is strictly limited, whose network cannot be censored or shut down, and whose power is decentralized. However, interacting with $BTC primarily as a store of value risks overlooking Satoshi’s stated purpose.
Why Spending $BTC Hasn’t Always Made Sense
Bitcoin has evolved tremendously over the years, and for many periods during that maturation, spending $BTC was ill-advised due to high transaction fees caused by network congestion. The price of $BTC has also increased so dramatically over time that spending has been perceived as a foolhardy move, since you are effectively destroying your prospects of future gains.
However, where would we be if Laszlo Hanyecz hadn’t proven $BTC’s utility as a medium of exchange when purchasing two Papa John’s pizzas for 10,000 $BTC in 2010? Well, we might be in the same place: Bitcoin’s appeal is so strong, it’s hard to envision an alternate universe in which it failed to gain traction. Nevertheless, Laszlo used the cryptocurrency as it was intended to be used and became a glorious footnote in its unfolding story.
Of course, there have been other reasons why users chose not to spend $BTC, not least the fact that for many years few legitimate businesses accepted it as payment. Friction was high. Wallet security was top of mind. Keeping your stack in cold storage rather than spending it seemed like the safest bet.
Spending $BTC is Easier and Cheaper Than Ever
But the ‘$BTC as cash’ narrative has refused to die, aided by a preponderance of options for actually using the asset at the point of sale. Case in point: GoBTC, a noncustodial, Bitcoin-native payment protocol whose advantages include instant confirmation, on-chain settlement, and fee-less transactions for users.
While some people will still be too fearful of experiencing ‘pizza regret’ to spend $BTC, GoBTC is a friction-free Layer-1 solution pitched at those who strongly believe in supporting Bitcoin’s original purpose.
GoBTC is able to offer the aforementioned benefits because of its parent company, GoMining, a top-10 Bitcoin miner by hash rate which settles every transaction on-chain through its private mining pool. To put it another way, GoMining’s block production acts as the protocol’s fuel, with a modest 0.2% fee for merchants that dramatically undercuts dominant card processors Visa and Mastercard (1.5-3%).
Interestingly, half of that 0.2% merchant fee goes to the wallet provider while the remainder goes to the miner that closes the block. Consequently, as well as furnishing shoppers with convenience, and merchants with lower processing fees, GoBTC creates a fresh revenue stream that miners don’t currently have.
Bitcoin’s Next Stage of Growth?
GoMining CEO Mark Zalan has suggested that “getting it [$BTC] circulating as an economic means of payment is going to drive the next sort of stage of growth.” While this is no more than a theory at this juncture, increased financial surveillance of consumer spending may well compel more users to shop using an asset that can’t be so easily monitored.
Those less concerned about surveillance may prefer the oft-mentioned benefits Bitcoin brings, such as enabling them to bypass traditional banking fees including for making payments across borders.
Although GoBTC is not the only project aiming to steer conversation back to Bitcoin’s original purpose by making it practical for real-world transactions, it’s worth highlighting due to its ability to authorize payments through its multi-signature wallet and batch them off-chain, before including them in the blocks it (or rather GoMining) mines.
Interestingly, GoMining anticipates doubling its revenue to $720 million in 2026, with 191,849 partners said to already be on the GoBTC waitlist ahead of its June 19 launch.
If Zalan and his team can make good on their ambition, they could well advance the cause of $BTC as a spendable asset further than anyone to date. What would Satoshi say?
