Craig Wright on satoshis vs fiat competition in Bitcoin and 0 sat transactions

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The Bitcoin white paper title has the word “system” in it. Bitcoin is not just peer to peer electronic cash, but a peer to peer electronic cash system.

We can witness the system by paying attention to what Bitcoin SV dedicated transaction processors are already doing—offering Bitcoin services to be paid in Bitcoin, but also in fiat money.

Together with Dr. Craig Wright and Joel Dalais from the Metanet ICU, I had the chance to discuss the topic of satoshis vs. fiat and 0 sat transactions in the Bitcoin system.

Understanding satoshis vs fiat in the Bitcoin system

Miners have been and still are paid for their work by receiving the block reward subsidy and transaction fees in bitcoins. So miners get bitcoins/satoshis as a payment—they do sell these bitcoins for fiat money in order to cover their costs.

Transaction processors that specialize on Bitcoin SV have found a business model that allows their customers to pay in fiat money for all Bitcoin related services such as processing transactions. The transaction fee can be paid in bitcoins or in fiat money.

0 sat transactions is one of the keywords here.

So we do see fiat and bitcoins competing as cash in the Bitcoin system already. Is it better for transaction processors and miners to get paid in fiat, or in satoshis? See our interview with Daniel Krawisz on exactly this question.

Using Bitcoin without using bitcoins

Is it really possible to use Bitcoin without using bitcoins/satoshi?

I asked Dr. Craig Wright (time stamped here).

In short: Yes, there is a way to utilize Bitcoin without actually transferring any bitcoins. We are not talking about free transactions though; the transaction processors would still get paid—but not necessarily in bitcoins/satoshis.

It is a paradigm shift for Bitcoin and the mining/transaction processing business model.

From what I know about it, this helps Bitcoin—it opens it up to customers and users that do not want to use bitcoins/satoshis themselves, but still want to use Bitcoin related services.

We even have Bitcoin use cases that have no bitcoins/satoshis involved too, such as signing messages, accessing data and off chain transactions. Bitcoin is way bigger than we all thought (discussed with Dr. Craig Wright in the video here).

When transaction processors profit in satoshis and in fiat—which is better?

When there are two kinds of cash being used in one system, will both survive? Will not the better cash push out the worse one?

Daniel Krawisz said this in our interview:

Money is about specialization and the division of labor. If you want to be paid in fiat, that means you want to specialize with a different group of people than with the Bitcoiners. Why do you not want to specialize with the Bitcoiners? Bitcoiners are better at it because they have better money. If you do not want to specialize with Bitcoiners, then what are you even doing here?

Compare Dr. Craig Wright’s point of view on the subject of transaction processors profiting in fiat money time stamped here:

Dr. Craig Wright points out the current use case of transaction processors getting paid directly in fiat, while Daniel Krawisz’s point seems more focused on the ideal and future oriented perception of money/cash.

The video contains a whole lot of other Bitcoin related topics you might be interested in. Feel free to have a look at the table of contents:

00:45 Bitcoin not a community project

01:48 rejecting “one person one vote”

02:40 “System“ in white paper title

02:56 using Bitcoin without using bitcoins

04:35 TAAL and Mempool announcing fiat contracting

05:33 fiat vs. satoshis

06:35 talking 0 sat transactions with Craig Wright

08:05 using Bitcoin as a time stamp server

08:39 Bitcoin as a system is bigger than the bitcoins

09:08 Bitcoin as a commodity

09:18 global currency on Bitcoin

10:50 use cases in Bitcoin that do not need satoshis

12:17 free transactions in Bitcoin

14:14 miners getting paid in fiat vs. getting paid in satoshis

15:50 Craig Wright on moving Satoshi’s bitcoins

15:57 “I don’t own anything” Craig Wright’s Trust structure