Bitcoin White Paper 16th anniversary: Reckoning with original vision

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It’s my fifth year publishing content with CoinGeek, and my twelfth year being a Bitcoiner.

Somehow, it feels like time flew by, but it has also been forever since we’ve been working on and fighting for Bitcoin. That duality has been a big part of my thinking on Bitcoin lately, and as the cultures of BTC and BSV continue to diverge between Fink, Dorsey, and Saylor’s vision versus Satoshi’s, it’s incumbent upon me to reflect on the past and peer into the future.

On October 31, we mark sixteen years since Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin white paper—a concise yet visionary document that redefined the concept of money and challenged the power structures controlling global finance. Satoshi proposed more than just a decentralized currency; Bitcoin was designed as a robust, peer-to-peer system that promised financial autonomy, economic inclusivity, and an open network accessible to all. Sixteen years later, however, Bitcoin’s journey is marred by competing interpretations of its purpose and challenges that have redefined what it means to “keep the network secure.” As we celebrate this anniversary, we are reminded of Bitcoin’s roots, where it has veered off course, and where its potential is being realized most faithfully.

For nearly a decade, Bitcoin Core (BTC) has followed a path that prioritizes digital scarcity and store-of-value narratives. In pursuit of price appreciation, BTC implemented a restrictive approach to scalability, limiting the block size to constrain transaction capacity and create artificial scarcity. This decision, which some argue preserves decentralization, also profoundly constrains utility, making it impractical for everyday transactions. While BTC’s price growth has rewarded early adopters and institutional investors, the network’s vision has narrowed. Today, BTC’s most innovative development is Ordinals, an inscription protocol allowing users to etch NFT-like images and data onto the blockchain—an amusing diversion, yet far from the transformative utility Satoshi envisioned.

BTC’s mining sector tells a sobering story. After peaking around the 2017-2018 bull run, mining profitability has steadily declined, and BTC miners are caught in a precarious race. Transaction volumes remain low, and mining incentives continue to shrink, forcing miners into an unsustainable battle to maintain profitability. As BTC’s cultural and financial gravity shifted towards HODLing, its ecosystem paradoxically starves for the very transaction volume that could make it economically sustainable. The result is an ecosystem where scarcity is the product, and all other utility is sacrificed on the altar of “Number Go Up!“

Miners face financial consequences while BTC’s network stagnates, effectively bottlenecking the economy that is meant to flourish.

On the other hand, the BSV blockchain has pursued a path that remains true to Bitcoin’s intended function as “Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash,” embracing a philosophy of openness and scalability. Soon, BSV’s upcoming Teranode upgrade will launch as a practical realization of Bitcoin’s original potential. Built to handle at least one million transactions per second, Teranode represents a leap in capability that eliminates the need for convoluted scaling solutions like layer-2 rollups or federated side chains. It is an infrastructure designed not to limit but to support the dynamic, global commerce and data integrity that Bitcoin was meant to deliver.

For those skeptical of Bitcoin’s initial intent, revisiting Satoshi’s original design is important. Bitcoin was more than a hedge against inflation—it was a new infrastructure for secure, global payments. From day one, Bitcoin’s purpose was to serve as a decentralized ledger for peer-to-peer transactions that could foster economic empowerment and data reliability on a vast scale. BSV, through Teranode, aims to make this promise a reality, supporting high transaction throughput, complex smart contracts, tokens, and applications—all within a single, scalable layer with a shared, global database: a truly single source of truth.

This is not speculative potential but a roadmap to real-world utility, from micropayments to supply chain transparency, immutable records, identity management, and more!

The history of Bitcoin’s white paper is as much a story of resilience as it is of conflict. Bitcoin’s early days were fueled by ideologues who believed not just in profits, but in liberty. People risked—and in some cases, lost—their lives promoting the freedom embedded in truly decentralized finance. There were those who believed deeply enough in this vision to face legal battles, state crackdowns, and even exile to protect it. Bitcoin wasn’t birthed into a vacuum but into a world where its disruptive power posed a genuine threat to entrenched financial and governmental powers. Those who sacrificed were not sacrificing for price; they were defending a fundamental right to transact and share information without permission or surveillance.

However, today’s BTC culture has transformed into a technocratic hierarchy, where value accrual replaces value creation. The HODL-only mentality and restrictive scaling have turned BTC into an asset for the few rather than an empowering tool for all. By design, BTC has embraced a scarcity-driven model that encourages passive accumulation, where users are rewarded for holding but discouraged from transacting. This model has attracted whales and speculators but discourages the organic, high-volume economic activity that strengthens an open network.

As I said in my most recent editorial, imagine a future where every Fortune 500 company adopted this model. Imagine Walmart (NASDAQ: WMT) moving resources from its supply chain into BTC or Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) diverting logistics funds toward digital currency assets instead of delivery innovations. Imagine Apple )NASDAQ: AAPL) launching a new iPhone every three years because its R&D budget is parked in BTC. The more companies adopt this HODL strategy, the greater the economic drag, as essential sectors divert from productive activities to speculative holdings. This approach is not only unsustainable at scale; it actively harms the existing economy outside of Bitcoin as well.

Truly, BTC HODLing has become, in essence, a race to the bottom, where economic growth is collateral damage in the pursuit of digital scarcity.

In contrast, BSV’s approach promises a model where Bitcoin grows alongside the economy rather than at its expense. By building out utility-focused infrastructures, BSV envisions an ecosystem where the very act of using Bitcoin contributes to economic growth and data integrity. BSV doesn’t aim to capitalize on global crises; instead, it seeks to facilitate global commerce, enhance transparency, and reduce transaction costs. BSV’s advocates don’t just want to hold; they want to build. They see a world where Bitcoin serves as the foundation for next-generation applications—enabling micropayments, smart contracts, and data verification in ways that drive the economy forward.

The promise of Bitcoin isn’t passive accumulation. It’s an active, vibrant economy that fosters growth for all participants. As we commemorate the 16th anniversary of the Bitcoin white paper, let us remember that Bitcoin’s strength lies not in asset scarcity, but in economic abundance. Its purpose is not to hoard value but to create it. BTC’s culture thrives by fueling FOMO, benefiting from external crises, and creating a gated economy for a select few.

BSV, by contrast, champions a vision where Bitcoin drives prosperity by empowering businesses, governments, and individuals to engage freely in global commerce with as little friction as humanly possible.

In the end, this anniversary is a call to remember that Bitcoin’s greatest promise lies in empowering all people to participate in an open, frictionless economy. BTC’s path might lead to a technocratic aristocracy, but BSV stands for a world where Bitcoin brings us all closer to freedom and wealth. 

This isn’t merely a distinction of values; it’s the difference between an economy in decline and an economy free to grow. BSV needs to be adopted in order to fix anything, but what I never hear anyone else saying is that if BSV isn’t adopted, BTC must adopt rules and standards that look like BSV, or it will collapse under the weight of its own, unbalanced, centrally-planned economics.

Choose wisely.

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