234 sats \ 17 replies \ @kr 14 Apr 2023 \ on: HODL is obsolete. Hodl by SPEND & REPLACE - must be the new bitcoiners MANTRA bitcoin
i don’t think this is the way to go.
people who buy bitcoin are not buying it so they can turn around and spend it. they want to protect themselves against inflation, take control of their money, opt out of the fiat system, etc…
instead, i think it’s 100x easier to convince someone to spend bitcoin if they’ve earned it rather than bought it.
the stakes tend to be smaller, it’s a pain to take funds off a lightning app and send it to cold storage, and with enough merchants accepting bitcoin on lightning i think many would prefer to use the extra sats they’ve earned over their cold storage funds… maybe even over their fiat funds too.
earn + spend + replace.
I agree that people who earn bitcoin instead of buying it are more likely to spend it. Two points regarding bitcoin buyers/savers:
- Why do they still have fiat savings left?
- They are not "saving" bitcoin, they are deferring spending their bitcoin. The point of the OP is that if we don't spend bitcoin as often as we can right now, the day might come when we cannot spend our bitcoin anywhere ("Sorry sir, we only accept cards or CBDC. Cash is only accepted for payments below $50 and will be soon phased out.").
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i hadn’t really considered the urgency in your second point, that’s definitely a risk.
i think folks on all sides of this thread want to see widespread merchant adoption, i just think the path to get there requires widespread earning first… though i hope others try different strategies too.
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It seems like a chicken and egg problem. Everything is necessary. Spending, earning, saving, entrepreneurs creating awesome products, etc.
A few days ago I was chatting with someone who had been to El Salvador twice in the past two years. He said that the second time there was less bitcoin acceptance among large hotel chains. The hotels said that there was not enough people paying with bitcoin, so they removed the option to save the monthly fees they were being charged for the service. However, small merchants seemed more receptive to getting paid in bitcoin, according to him.
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i think it’s 100x easier to convince someone to spend bitcoin if they’ve earned it rather than bought it.
Couldn't agree more.
A circular Bitcoin economy is the way.
This is why I'm excited for P2P marketplaces using LN payments. It will allow anyone to sell any good or service for sats.
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earn + spend + replace is good, too
as a side note:
people who buy bitcoin to protect themselves and don't even think for a second about protecting bitcoin itself
by healthy expansion, i.e. by spreading it as much as they can - are very shortsighted, unfortunately...
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perhaps some people are being shortsighted, but the battle to convince those people to spend is a waste of time imo.
after all, they have bitcoin… the best asset for escaping people who want to tell you how to spend your own money.
the argument of “you should spend the bitcoin you bought” may be a good one, but to holders it comes across as “let me tell you how you should use your own money”.
giving people east tools to spend their SN rewards, zaps, or gaming earnings seems much more promising. many of these folks are not hardcore bitcoiners either, and may not even care about storing wealth… they just want to use the money they earned.
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it's not: “you should spend the bitcoin you bought”
it's rather: "you should circulate a single percent of your bitcoin stash"
for the sake of Bitcoin
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You don't have to circulate your bitcoin if no one asks for it.
I know what you are getting at.
I ask to be paid only in bitcoin when I know the people have bitcoin.
I give discount to people who have no bitcoin yet to get them interested.
I think that's more the way to go then to come on SN and "demand" people to spend their bitcoin.
We want to save in BTC as much as we can because we still can.
But in general, we can also spend and replace if I wanted to pay with fiat anyway just to let the merchant know: Hey, I am willing to pay in bitcoin if required.
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ok,
according to Metcalfe's law is better to even sacrifice 5% of own stash - if it only double the number of users - effectively you save this way as much as you can, and not the way of Gollum's approach...
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How can I increase users if someone is so new they can't or don't even want to accept bitcoin? Asking someone like this to pay them in bitcoin just makes them believe you want to scam them.
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sure, but it’s still telling people what they “should” do, and Bitcoin holders are highly averse to spending their btc.
the people earning sats already want more things they can do with their money… you don’t have to change their minds, just give them the tools to spend.
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Bitcoin holders are highly averse to spending
let them understand this simple Metcalfe's law, at last... ;)
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I think you misinterpret what this law says. Does the law say:
"You need to spend your bitcoin to increase adoption?"
To my understanding, no, it doesn't. All it says is this:
Metcalfe's law states that the financial value or impact of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system (n^2).
That's it. Nothing about what increases adoption.
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it's harder to increase the number of "connected users" if current users have the high averse to spending...
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Again. Does the law say:
"You need to spend your bitcoin to increase adoption?"
If not, you used the law wrong. You just abused it for your own purposes.