You shouldn’t be surprised to learn that Bitcoin is money, even in these challenging times when the crypto is going through a bear stage.
However, suppose you’re new to the crypto sector. In that case, the idea that Bitcoin is valuable might be hard to sell to you because you know that the euro, dollar, pound, or other similar traditional currencies are the world’s reserve currencies. Also, the world is going through a period of inflation, which isn’t as bad as everyone feared it would be.
If you’re like most crypto investors, you most likely decided to approach the sector because you learned about Bitcoin and its advantages for traders in the first place. However, if you have never invested in alternative assets, you might find it hard to understand why the first digital currency is important. Our recommendation is not to leave the strength of the traditional currencies blind you and to allow yourself to appreciate their utility in the present society.
To jog your memory check bitcoin price chart and have a look at the following utility cases Bitcoin has and fiat currencies lack.
Bitcoin Offers Censorship-Resistant Finances
Everyone has been discussing the subject of censorship in the last decade, but it gained more ground in the last few years. Twitter, a social platform, removed the account of a sitting president of the USA. Some COVID-19 theories people first refused to accept as valid proved to be true. Due to censorship, several accounts have been restricted from posting when they first presented COVID-19 theories.
While the above examples might bother you, what would you say if your money were the subject of censorship? Could the authorities do this?
Well, let’s take, for example, the Canadian trucker protest. When the Canadian government wanted to vaccinate all trickers who entered the country, they decided to protest the mandate by closing Ottawa. Long story short, everyone involved in the protest was a victim of money censorship when the banking system turned off their money.
It’s scary to think that some authority has such power over your finances. This is why people have turned to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to donate to controversial causes like the trucker protest. No one can interfere with Bitcoin transfers, not even banking systems or governments. Bitcoin and most digital currencies are censorship-resistant money.
Bitcoin is a Discrete Asset
Experts predict that jurisdictional arbitrage will increase with political powers leaning further to extremes worldwide. People are dealing with controls, capital flight, and polarisation daily:
- Some countries like Russia and Iran are prone to receive sanctions
- Some countries promote sensible energy policies
- Some countries legalize marijuana/drug use
- Pro-life and pro-choice countries
Investors often need to act fast or risk their wealth, but how can they move all their belongings when they have to leave the country from one day to another? How can they cross borders with jewelry, gold, and wads of cash?
They can’t do so because their wealth is at risk of being confiscated when they try to move it to another country. But they can move cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, and if they choose reliable platforms, they can do it without leaving evidence for the authorities or someone else knowing they move their wealth. They have to maintain their 12 or 24-word seed phrases, and they can access their wealth everywhere around the world.
Bitcoin is Available 24/7
There’s nothing more frustrating than needing to complete a transaction when the banks are closed. You could lose a great opportunity if you have to make a payment during the night or at weekends. You’re living in a world where all markets are connected, and everything is in demand, but financial services hold different availability standards.
Since its existence, Bitcoin has had an up-time of 99.99%. During its 12 years of existence, the network had a cumulative 14 hours of downtime. You can be anywhere in the world at any given time, and you could access the Bitcoin network as long as your device is connected to the internet.
Bitcoin Facilitates Micropayments
Commerce occurs more online than in brick-and-mortar stores, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. However, let’s note that this post doesn’t necessarily focus on commerce that implies products being shipped to the buyers’ houses but on products and services they can consume on their internet-connected devices.
In these situations, most buyers want to keep their credit card information private to purchase services like Wall Street Journal or Spotify subscriptions. Crypto enthusiasts state that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can disrupt e-commerce through scaling layers like the Lighting Network that facilitate internet-native micropayments.
The trend is known under the name of vale-for-value. A well-known example is the Fountain podcast app developed on Bitcoin’s base layer on the Lighting Network. Listeners create a Lighting wallet and use tiny bitcoin portions– satoshis or sats – to pay the content creator. Content creators using blockchain technology can rely on the public to fund their ventures.
Another innovative way to use Bitcoin in e-commerce is the pesky paywalls. For example, when someone visits a magazine’s website and is asked to pay a fee to read an article, they often exit the window and forget about the blog. The odds for someone to reach for their wallet, type their credit card info, and offer their sensitive data online are very little. But if they have a Lighting wallet, they only scan their QR code and access the article they’re interested in. It takes them less than a minute to purchase the services or products they’re interested in.
Last words
Bitcoin is thriving even in the bear market. This isn’t the first challenging period it goes through, and it won’t be its last. Many people are fixated on its price, but its value comes from more than how much a Bitcoin costs.
Bitcoin is a force that boosts innovation in all sectors. It’s available for everyone to use, reliable, and secure, and there are no authorities to control it. Crypto enthusiasts have always said that it’s better than money, and they are looking forward to everyone coming to understand this.
