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Well, folks, it’s official. Bitcoin, the one-time digital freedom fighter, has sold out. Gone are the days of our beloved cryptocurrency being used as the digital cash it was meant to be. These days, Bitcoin’s more interested in playing the art dealer. That’s right – Bitcoin’s the new kid on the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) block.
The “Artful” Betrayal of Bitcoin
If Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, were still around, he’d be revolting right now. Why? Because Bitcoin’s original vision was to be a global digital cash system. It was supposed to offer a decentralized, borderless, and permissionless way to transact. It was a solution for the unbanked and a way to wrestle control away from those pesky financial institutions. However, it seems Bitcoin’s too busy playing dress-up as the next big NFT platform.
Bitcoin NFTs, brought to you by the Ordinals Protocol, have exploded onto the scene, with their inscriptions selling for as much as $214,000, contributing to the total transaction fees that have hit 1,501 BTC, or approximately US$40 million. As a result, Bitcoin’s network transaction fees are skyrocketing, and it’s all thanks to these NFTs. Who wouldn’t want to pay $19 for a transaction?
From Digital Cash to Digital Graffiti
While some in the industry, like Eric Wall, are championing this new direction, saying it “forces the infrastructure of Bitcoin to mature” and “brings BTC back as a unit of account”, others, myself included, aren’t so keen.
A growing chorus of Bitcoin users sees this NFT trend as nothing short of an attack on the network. Bitcoin was supposed to be a money network, not a tool for distributing digital art pieces. Instead, this sudden shift feels more like a graffiti movement, defacing the peer-to-peer financial network that Bitcoin’s blockchain made possible.
And let’s remember the little guy. With rising transaction fees and longer confirmation wait times, using Bitcoin for small transactions is becoming a thing of the past. Just ask the people of El Salvador who find their Chivo ATM system almost unusable thanks to these high fees.
The Lightning Network, a second layer built on top of Bitcoin, is a potential solution. It offers much smaller fees and faster confirmations, but so far, the uptake hasn’t been that great.
So, is this the future of Bitcoin? As an NFT platform with skyrocketing fees and a network too congested for regular folks to use? If Satoshi Nakamoto were here, I doubt he’d be too thrilled.
In the meantime, let’s hope the next Bitcoin halving, expected in 2024, can bring some sanity back to the network and keep the spirit of Satoshi’s vision alive. But who knows? Maybe by then, Bitcoin will have moved on to become a virtual real estate agent or a digital fashion brand.
Only time will tell. Only time will tell.
