Craig Wright: Bitcoin is an informational commodity

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Is Bitcoin a commodity or a security? 

Dr. Craig Wright, the inventor of Bitcoin, gave a keynote speech at the CoinGeek conference in New York on the subject of what a commodity is, and what it means to categorize Bitcoin as an informational commodity.

“Everyone gets this wrong, they think a commodity is just a good. It is not. It is the contract. The commodity is a certain amount of something, delivered at a certain time, with a certain refinement – that is a commodity,” Dr. Wright says.

Dr. Wright explains how commodities being delivered on time and with the exact same quality allow specialization as described by Adam Smith. Specialization is something Dr. Wright points out as being not fully understood even within the Bitcoin SV ecosystem.

“It is called specialization. Start doing it (…). Don’t be communist. It is not good for you. It is not good for any of us,” Dr. Wright says.

Bitcoin SV as a commodity has already been discussed lively in the Bitcoin SV sphere:

1. John Pitt’s article on Bitcoin as a computational commodity
2. Jerry Chan’s article on BSV as a store of value
3. Dr. Wright in a video titled “Bitcoin is a Commodity”
4. our overview article on Bitcoin SV as a commodity

“When I created Bitcoin, I didn’t tell you that you can’t change the protocol because ‘Oh, it’s technically hard.’ It is fucking not hard at all. A fricking bloody imbecilic person with half a brain after a car crash, without a helmet, who decided to stop a football right afterwards with their noggin, could probably learn how to code the fricking thing to make the change,” Dr. Wright says.

To translate this real quick: changing Bitcoin as has happened with BTC is not hard technically, but has severe consequences for Bitcoin as a whole.

Think about it—why can Bitcoin SV be a commodity, while BTC cannot? It is due to the fact that BSV is set in stone on several levels, which means standardized. BTC is not. BTC has been changed a lot and will probably be changed in the future again, so it does not qualify as standardized. People simply cannot rely on what BTC is. This is why “set in stone” concerning Bitcoin SV always was and still is crucial.

In his keynote speech, Dr. Wright points out that Bitcoin is presented to the world as a unilateral contractual offer. Joel Dalais from the Metanet ICU and myself discussed Bitcoin as bound under contract in a video with Dr. Wright some time ago.

So we already know why Bitcoin SV is stable in three ways:

1. stable code-wise (locked down protocol on a software level),
2. economically stable (solid foundation to build onto),
3. but also contractually stable (Bitcoin is bound under contract)

Taking Dr. Wright’s newest keynote speech on Bitcoin as a commodity into consideration, we have to add a fourth point now:

4. stable as BSV is a commodity, which is standardized by definition.

“Bitcoin is not money because the government said it is money. It is money because people accept it in exchange for goods and services,” Dr. Wright explains.

Bitcoin is money, a ledger, it is a commodity money based on use. It is important that Dr. Wright points out all of this, because the BTC camp has tried to establish their false version of Bitcoin as a form of “digital gold,” which BTC is definitely not. If at all, BTC is the ugly digital gold.

Bitcoin was never designed to be kept on exchanges or in wallets to wait for price appreciation. Bitcoin was made for utility and to value data. Today the original Bitcoin as intended by Satoshi Nakamoto, in accordance with the Bitcoin white paper, is only to be found in the BSV blockchain.

As stated by Dr. Wright, money is information, that is why it is a ledger, and it matters if we change its numbers. Crucial are the following key phrases that Dr. Wright mentioned:

1. Money is a ledger used to exchange goods and services across time. See Dr. Wright’s new keynote speech on time as a personal experience, too.
2. Money allows specialization.
3. At scale, Bitcoin is not deflationary.

Bitcoin is an immutable ledger, but that does not mean it cannot be updated, according to Dr. Wright. Updates are necessary if things go bad—such as coins being stolen from the owner, or lost access occurs to coins one lawfully owns but cannot get to anymore.

“When I go to court in Florida, it is basically game over for everyone who thinks Bitcoin can’t be seized. I have made sure of that. And it is going to happen. No one is moving a coin via key, but I guarantee they are being moved,” Dr. Wright says.

Watch CoinGeek New York 2021 Day 3 here: