Bitcoin Pizza Day was the first demonstration that Bitcoin could be used as a means of change. This was a historical milestone, which made the dream of digital cash between peers come true.
15 years later Bitcoin’s main narrative has changed. There is little talk about the use of Bitcoin as a means of change. The thesis by which Bitcoin is bought is the value reserve. Did Bitcoin change? That bitcoin with which Laszlo Hanject bought his pizzas still exists?
Bitcoin, at least on Chain, is transferred little. Yes, from that May 22, 2010 when Laszlo bought their pizzas, transactions per day have passed from 150 to more than 400 thousand transactions, in a 30 -day mobile average. But as we see in the following graph, the growth curve has flattened, and the figure is quite distant to the 663 million daily transactions that processes the always cited visa.
When this fact is put on the table, many bitcoiners claim that BTC transactions are now carried out outside the chain, in second -layer networks such as Lightning. The implementation of this network on platforms such as Binance, Coinbase or Revolution seems to support this belief, but due to the opacity of Lightning data it is practically impossible to be certain about it.
It could be believed that today, if someone were going to buy two pizzas from Pope John’s, he would probably choose Usdt, Tether’s stablecoin, more frequently than Bitcoin. In payment processors such as CoingateUSDT represents 34% of transactions, although Bitcoin follows with 23%.
The truth is that Bitcoin’s promise of revaluation over time deter people from spending it. Although Laszlo says not to regret having spent 10,000 BTC on their pizzas, many would probably not think the same Today that these BTC are worth more than one billion dollars.
Think of everything you could buy with one billion dollars. As they say, you would have a resolved life, you would have full and absolute freedom to decide what to do with your life time. That is why people decide to treasure bitcoin and spend USDT or dollars, for the hope that Bitcoin will buy them time. On the other hand, the life expectancy of the dollar is usually shorter.
To these properties, the founder of Strategy and thinker about Bitcoin, Michael Saylor, usually classify them low concepts of Low frequency money and high frequency money.
High frequency money is one that you want to get rid of quickly because it is bad transporting value over time. The Bolívar or the Argentine peso, hyperinflationary, are very frequency money, while the dollar would have a lower frequency, although it remains high.
Low frequency money, on the other hand, wants to treasure it because it transports very well the value over time. Gold has historically been low frequency money, and Now Bitcoin becomes a very low frequency. We find this seeing that 80% of the Bitcoin supply at this time corresponds to long -term savers.
In his work Origins of money, The founder of the Austrian School of Economics, Carl Menger, argued that a good becomes money because of its “vendability”, (ability to be easily exchanged), which initially makes them means of exchange. Over time, these goods also become value reserves due to their durability and other monetary properties.
When Laszlo bought his pizzas, he opened the doors of Bitcoin towards Vendability, to its use as a means of change. Since then, Bitcoin has not stopped fulfilling this function, only that, thanks to its great capacity to transport time value, this is the good for which people have decided to exchange it.
Bitcoin is a means of change to buy time.
When you have a tool to save and some wealth can be created (Wealth), time is obtained, in the sense of optional and freedom. Already the world of needs does not press us as it used to do it and we can own our lives, and even inherit that time to our children, grandchildren and upcoming generations.
Bitcoin is still a means of change, only now instead of buying pizzas, buy time.
