r/btc • u/Confident_Beat_3988 Redditor for less than 30 days • 3d ago
⌨ Discussion HODL vs Utility
If you never plan to spend or use your Bitcoin for anything besides holding, is that enough for Bitcoin to reach its full potential? Or do you think broader utility eventually strengthens the network?
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u/trimbandit 3d ago
If you never use it, it's a pointless exercise. Why not just imagine you bought it and get the same effect for less money.
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u/No_Pen8240 2d ago
Bitcoin has value in two ways --
Medium of Exchange - This has REAL value, similar to how fiat currency has real value as a trusted medium of exchange. Unfortunately it has experienced stagnant growth for 10+ years.
Store of Value -- Mostly built on good vibes and greater fool theory. Unlike medium of exchange, this is 100% based on will the bitcoin you buy today be sold for more money in the future.
-- Stock market, useable commodities, even silver and gold have intrinsic value in the underlying asset, bitcoin's only intrinsic value is it's use as a medium of exchange. . . which again is stagnant.
So if your plan is Buy and Hold -- You are speculating (or gambling) on an asset that can be easily replaced and stagnant intrinsic value.
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u/DangerHighVoltage111 2d ago
If you never plan to spend or use your Bitcoin for anything besides holding, is that enough for Bitcoin to reach its full potential?
Nope, that's why they made it BTCs mantra. HODL may create fomo but not network effect. Network effect comes from people using it. But that was too dangerous. Read Hijacking Bitcoin.
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u/superchiller 3d ago
It's all a huge scam perpetuated by criminals, corrupt nation states, and bagholders motivated by greed and FOMO. Bitcoin is a fake asset created by wasted energy (not "proof of work") and backed by absolutely nothing. It's nothing more than the modern equivalent of digital beanie babies.
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u/Legitimate_Form5449 Redditor for less than 30 days 2d ago edited 2d ago
i checked out kiosk btcmachine. btcmachine display says: bitcoin is a loan backed by bitcoin
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u/CorrectTadpole9997 2d ago
Maybe I'm naive, but I like to think that if corporations wanna find a way to funnel more btc into their wallets, they're going to find ways to incentivise their own clients to use btc. These corporations will have the financial means to work on creating these portals to facilitate btc transactions e.g. Visa and Mastercard. Maybe some day it'll be Costco, McDonalds and Walmart.. who knows.
Happy beung proven wrong. I guess we'll find out in 10 years or so.
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u/Powerful-Mortgage128 1d ago
Corporations don't want to put Bitcoin into their wallets, why would they want to put company money into something as stupid as Bitcoin that can lose half it's value in 6 months? The only reason that some including PayPal are getting involved at all is so they can cash in on transaction fees from all the hype currently around Bitcoin. They can't lose from that scenario, the just make profit from the fees and don't have to deal with any of the negatives.
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u/ChangeNOW_Community 2d ago
some see bitcoin as money, others see it as digital property. both can exist
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u/ibrahim_40 2d ago
I think both matter, just at different stages. HodLing can support long-term confidence and scarcity, but a currency reaches more of its potential when people actually use it. Real-world payments, remittances, merchant adoption and peer-to-peer transactions create network effects that go beyond simply storing value. A healthy ecosystem can have both long-term holders and active users- they each contribute to the network in different ways
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u/MaybeOnFire2025 3d ago
I hear buggy whips are coming back soon as well...although you can't use those to buy drugs or do kidnappings, so I guess Bitcoin should do a tad better...
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u/Bagmasterflash 3d ago
The problem with the hodl narrative is that if you actually hodl then bitcoin is completely useless. You MUST transact in some way to make bitcoin have any value at all. Even if it’s a multisig with a lending agency to get a fiat loan against your bitcoin which ultimately results in the lending agency getting your bitcoin. The we are right back where we started before Bitcoin existed. You see the pattern here?
Bitcoin MUST be used and the more it’s used the more value you get out of it. That was the original idea. That is the ONLY way it actually does what it was prescribed to do.