The battle “Store of value” Vs. “Method of payment” is a nonsense IMHO.
Bitcoin should be BOTH!
If BTC will not be both I will be forced to have an amount of my money on a shitty fiat like USD or Euro for my everyday needs.
Even if I’m a Bitcoin hodler I need to sell periodically my coins to get some liquidity to buy stuff. If I sell 2k$ at the beginning of the month I will create more sell pressure than buying things for 2k$ during the month, even if ALL the merchants will sell ALL the coins immediately (which is already false).
In the past we could not have both scarcity and the characteristics that make bitcoin suitable to be a good means of payment (like divisibility, ease to sell across the globe, low transaction costs -by l2 solutions-, ease to verify, etc)
The economic needs for a mean of payment are higher than the store of value, gold represents just a little fraction of the value of the total world money.
I think the goal of Bitcoin in the long time is to create a circular economy where I can spend my money without creating a selling pressure on the market, people should sell FIAT money to Buy Bitcoin not for an hope of a bigger future value but for a definitive paradigm switch. They should say “stop!” to lose money due to inflation which penalizes them whenever they breathe.
This will reduce also the disparity in society, now those with high holdings can invest their money and not lose them while those who own little must keep 100% in cash and suffer more inflation.
The main reason why merchant does not store Bitcoin is volatility the second one is due to the lack of diffusion as mean of payment if bitcoin will be a bit more stable and the suppliers will accept it then the merchant will not convert it immediately. But these problems are both “chicken and eggs” questions we cannot obtain one without the other but we will get both when the world will be ready.
When I will buy bitcoin, pay the pub, the pub use my bitcoin to pay the bartender, the bartender will use her coins to get the gasoline for her car and so on, all without creating a sell pressure bitcoin will create value around the world, until that moment this is only a zero-sum game who moves value from one person to another or stores the value to move it through the time.
But I think this is not already the time to see Bitcoin as payment method, we are still in the early phases of adoption, the price of bitcoin is growing with an exponential factor and this creates hype and fear phases on the market, the risk is actually too high for merchants but is just a matter of time for my idea of a global unstoppable currency.
