Block CEO Jack Dorsey: Bitcoin Will Fail If It Only Becomes Digital Gold
Block CEO Jack Dorsey stated in a podcast that if Bitcoin ultimately only becomes a store of value, i.e., digital gold, without more use cases, the project will fail due to irrelevance.
He emphasized that Bitcoin must enter payment scenarios to be relevant to people's daily lives. Otherwise, it is merely an asset that is bought and forgotten, only used in emergencies or when cashing out is necessary.
Dorsey defined failure as "irrelevance": if Bitcoin does not transition to payments and find everyday use cases, it will become increasingly irrelevant, which he views as failure.
He stressed the need to return to the original positioning of the white paper—a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Simply hoarding assets does not fulfill this design intent, nor does it allow global users to move funds without permission.
When institutional and national reserve demand drives prices up, the lack of actual on-chain payment and settlement activities amplifies long-term risks. As block subsidies continue to decline after halving, if transaction fees cannot compensate, the network security budget will face pressure.
Capital is shifting from mere hoarding and ETF allocations to supporting payment infrastructure, Lightning network integration, and the development of everyday use cases. Holders and miners under the pure store of value narrative will face long-term pressure, while institutions and protocols driving actual settlements gain structural advantages.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Jack Dorsey has publicly supported Bitcoin since his Twitter days and has continuously invested resources into Bitcoin trading via Cash App, Lightning network payment integration, and proprietary mining hardware and software development through Block (formerly Square). This path shows that he has long viewed the payment usability of Bitcoin as core, rather than merely as a reserve asset on the balance sheet.
Block is directing part of its business profits and product capabilities to lower the barriers to Bitcoin payments, including promoting retail usage and optimizing on-chain/Layer 2 settlement experiences. The motivation is that when Bitcoin is only a passive storage tool, its network incentive structure and daily relevance are difficult to maintain in the long term, and payment scenarios are seen as a necessary supplement.
This stands in direct contrast to the "digital gold" narrative represented by Michael Saylor. At the current stage, the Bitcoin ecosystem is in a parallel period of rapid expansion in reserve demand and relatively lagging actual payment adoption, with institutions and developers re-debating its ultimate positioning as purely a store or one that also includes settlement functions.
Essentially, this is a restructuring of the industry chain: as block subsidies continue to halve, the long-term funding source for network security must increasingly rely on on-chain transaction fees, forcing the network to shift from a demand structure primarily focused on hoarding to one that includes real payment and settlement activities. The mechanism is that a lack of usage leads to insufficient fee income, putting pressure on miner incentives and computational security budgets, which in turn affects the sustainability of the entire network.
ABAB News · Law of Cognition
- A network that only stores value will see its long-term security budget shrink.
- After subsidies decline, usage determines the security boundary.
- When the original design is ignored, relevance fails before price.