When Satoshi Nakamoto introduced bitcoin to the rest of the world, it was evident he had a particular plan in mind. In fact, Satoshi made some intriguing quotes in those days, all of which still apply to bitcoin today. Although it may appear some of the developers lost track of Satoshi’s original vision, the following quotes need to be remembered by all.
6. A Bitcoin Message System.
It is evident Satoshi Nakamoto thought of bitcoin as more than just a payment tool or investment vehicle. In fact, he once stated how bitcoin may very well have a messaging service feature at some point. However, such a system should be a “separate system parallel to the network. Messages should not be recorded in the blockchain, yet they need to be signed with the bitcoin address key pairs to prove who they’re from”. A very interesting concept, albeit not much progress has been made on developing such a service.
5. Transaction Confirmations
One of the main problems associated with bitcoin right now is how it requires 10 minutes or more for the transaction to be confirmed. However, Satoshi warned about how “zero-confirmation transactions are second-class citizens”. He felt those transactions “should not be counted as balance nor spent before receiving at least 1 confirmation”. Over the years, zero-confirmation transactions have been somewhat accepted by the bitcoin community to counter the delays associated with network confirmation.
In fact, various BIPs have been implemented which now allow for Child Pays for Parent (CPFP) transactions and even RBF (Replace by Fee) transactions. This was completely against Satoshi’s vision for better or for worse.
4. Bitcoin Is For … Porn?
In a rather unusual statement, Satoshi Nakamoto highlighted an intriguing use case for bitcoin as a payment tool. He said how bitcoin “would be convenient for people without credit card or don’t want to give their [card] number to porn guys“. Moreover, he also hinted at how bitcoin bypasses the privacy risks associated with recurring billing. Although recurring billing could be an intriguing feature for bitcoin in the future, there is no need for it right now.
3. Bitcoin’s Limited Supply Will Become “Huge”
Depending on whom you pose the question to, bitcoin’s limited supply of coins is either positive or negative. Satoshi was always confident the 21 million BTC cap would pay off in the end. Sharing his vision, he mused how “only 21 million coins for 6.8 billion people in the world if it gets really huge”. This seems to hint at a massive future price growth for bitcoin as the technology matures and gains more recognition. Bitcoin has a lot of potential to become “huge” at any moment, although this process may take years or even decades to come to fruition. One could say bitcoin is “huge” right now, as its market cap is in the billions and at least one out of three people have heard about it.
2. Bitcoin’s Rational Market or Lack Thereof
Satoshi Nakamoto left us with many different quotes, although the following may be one of the most inspirational ones. “A rational market price for something that is expected to increase in value will already reflect the present value of the expected future increases. In your head, you do a probability estimate balancing the odds that it keeps increasing.” This sentiment still applies to how people perceive the value of bitcoin today. It also goes to show very few people judge the bitcoin value in the same way.
1. Transaction Fees To Compensate Nodes?
As Satoshi Nakamoto implemented bitcoin block reward halvings, he was all too aware of how the miners would need to be compensated in a different manner. To maintain the 21 million coin limit, transaction fees will eventually become the new reward mechanism. However, Satoshi feels these rewards should be issued to nodes, rather than only the miners. He also predicted how there will be either “very large transaction fees or no volume”. Right now, it seems we are heading in the direction of ever-growing transaction fees.
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