As Director of Business Development for popular crypto exchange Kraken, when Dan Held speaks, people listen. As such, his recent 46-tweet diatribe on why the “payments narrative” for bitcoin is flawed grabbed the attention of many, tickling the ears of hardcore Lighting Network fans and bitcoin core maximalists alike. His argument is prima facie absurd, not to mention misleading.
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Held Says Bitcoin Wasn’t Meant Primarily for Payments
While constantly proselytizing folks about the “true meaning” of the bitcoin whitepaper is a waste of time, there comes a point where an interpretation emerges so wildly misinformed and grossly inaccurate it deserves an address. Enter Held’s recent Twitter storm.
For the purposes of this breakdown, Dan Held‘s broad assertions that bitcoin was not created to be a competitive payments system, or peer-to-peer cash, will be addressed according to his major claims.
Claim 1: Bitcoin Was Built to Be a Store of Value
Held writes: “Bitcoin was purpose-built to first be a Store of Value (SoV).” Yet the very first line of Satoshi’s bitcoin whitepaper reads:
Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System
“Bitcoin: A Store of Value System,” isn’t there. Held misconstrues Satoshi Nakamoto’s well-known comparisons of bitcoin to gold, and takes them to mean the SoV narrative is most important, payments be damned. But it’s critical to note that any relatively sound, widely utilized means of payment will eventually become a store of value. Satoshi understood this well, as his own words will later demonstrate.
Gold is more sound than government fiat money, it’s just harder to transact with in modern times. Satoshi’s
