The Use Cases of Bitcoin

By @AnilSaidSo

Selection no 6 from @AnilSaidSo's Bitcoin primer collection

We often misunderstand new technologies because they don’t neatly fit into to our world…yet They enable us to do things we previously couldn't. They change our behaviour.

Bitcoin is one such example. And looking at how it’s currently used gives us a peek into our future.

INFLATION HEDGE: "Bitcoin’s ultra-orthodox monetary policy of targeting a fixed money supply, is the ideal hedge for fiat money printing." - @pierre_rochard

MONETIZATION OF STRANDED ENERGY: “If your local energy cost is effectively zero but you cannot sell your energy anywhere, the existence of a global buyer for energy is a godsend.” - @nic__carter

UNCORRELATED ALPHA: "One reason the interest in bitcoin from Wall St as well as pensions and endowments is this is uncorrelated alpha, this is the holy grail of investing.” - @Sonnenshein

MICROPAYMENTS: "Bitcoin uniquely has a native unit of account called a "sat" that currently represents 1/100 of a cent (while BTC is $10k). The brand of "sats" ...could already be the most recognizable global unit of account to represent value <1cent." - @cuysheffield

HIGH-VALUE SETTLEMENT: "Its network can offer final settlement of large volume payments within minutes. Can thus best be compared to settlement payments between central banks & large financial institutions ... [but] infinitely cheaper & more verifiable." - @saifedean

A CALL OPTION ON THE FUTURE: Bitcoin is the call option on the future system...It is nothing short of the future of our entire medium of exchange system, and of money and the platform on which it operates." -@RaoulGMI

WEALTH STORAGE: "...may sound like a strange libertarian or anarchist perspective if you’ve grown up in a stable country. With all of the crazy things going on in the world, the demand for censorship-resistant wealth storage is high & growing." -@TaylorPearsonMe

LIQUID ALTERNATIVE TO PHYSICAL SoV ASSETS: “Classic paintings & vintage vehicles rarely trade in secondary markets and consequently, have poor price discovery... Bitcoin’s liquidity is valuable to users in that they can quickly acquire and dispose of [it].” -@CremeDeLaCrypto

COLLATERAL : "Bitcoin may be the most perfect and reliable collateral the world has ever known. When things get serious, informed players will demand it. Given the prevalence of re-hypothecation and other money games, this may be the only way to be sure." - @TheRealPaulRB

LOYALTY/REWARDS PROGRAMS "There's a whole group of customers that are already invested in bitcoin that want more of it. They'd rather earn bitcoin back instead of cashback. [It's] a whole new market." -@alexadelman (CEO, Lolli)

About the author

Anil is an independent bitcoin educator based in Canada. He holds an MBA, CBP and was part of MIT's inaugural FinTech certificate cohort. He's guest-lectured at Business schools and launched the first Bitcoin-specific university scholarship in Canada. His focus is on simplifying concepts through visuals and storytelling to make bitcoin easier to comprehend.

You can follow him on Twitter @anilsaidso

You can pre-order his book representing approximately 3,000 hours of research, teaching, writing and design in an effort to best communicate Bitcoin as a concept.