Bitcoin stands on two legs: Store of Value and Medium of Exchange.
Most people only use the right leg, treating it like digital gold while ignoring the left. Not because they can’t use both — the tech is ready — but because they choose not to. Some even argue it’s smarter to limp. 🤨
But a one-legged Bitcoin isn’t sovereign. It’s crippled.
I understand and agree with the point that we should encourage people spending day to day.
But the leg analogy is off though.
Philosophically, money has 3 formal properties: MoE, SoV, UoA - MoE being its essence.
Anything people exchange, is money, the act of exchanging it brings money into being, and all three formal properties are there necessarily.
it makes no sense to say a money could be missing a leg.
It would be like saying a person doesn’t have a height or width, just because they are short or skinny.
We can compare material characteristics to say this money is better than that money.
Formal properties are on/off
material characteristics admit of more or less.
The sovereignty comes from using the free will to make the decisions on how to use your bitcoin. Who are you to say how people should or shouldn’t use it? The network does what it’s intended to do the users decide for themselves what is best for them, that is the free market working as it should.
The users mostly decide what other influential figures told them to do and think. Take you for example - if you understood the implications of monetary demand, you wouldn’t be arguing with me about free markets and you would be looking for ways to spend and replace your Bitcoin.
You can make whatever assumptions you want about me but I do spend my bitcoin. The only rules in Bitcoin that matter are the rules written in code. I do not concern myself with other users I do want is best for me with my Bitcoin.
What if I tell you that you can have more Bitcoin while you spend it daily and that you can verify this for yourself in just two months?
Yea if you buy more bitcoin than you spend then yes. Pretty simple.
Sure, but you’re overlooking the psychological impact of having no fiat and only Bitcoin to spend. You instantly become more disciplined and conscious about every purchase. I managed to cut around 30% of my emotional buys and things like junk food in just the first month, simply because I didn’t want to waste precious sats on garbage. As a result, my stack grew much faster. Not just because I was buying more than my usual DCA (normally 15–20% of my monthly wage), but also because I became more mindful of how I spent the rest.
This also creates a second-order effect on the economy and adoption. It’s a slower process and requires broader action to truly matter, but spending Bitcoin increases merchant adoption, which adds monetary demand on top of the existing demand for savings (SoV). That increased monetary demand eventually boosts Bitcoin’s purchasing power, NgO. So spending Bitcoin actually has more benefits than tradeoffs, and it’s rational economic behavior, not just ideological purity.
Most of us are paid in fiat and bills are fiat so to turn it into bitcoin just to pay it in fiat seems like extra steps and cost at no benefit to the user. If you’re paid in bitcoin that’s a different story.
I used to think the same until I tried it. Ironically the moment for me came when our government decided to put us in the Eurozone and to abandon the currency board system that has been keeping our debt to GDP in check for 30 years. So for me it makes much sense to not hold any fiat until the exact moment when I convert the bitcoin at the point of sale.
Fair enough glad it is working for you
