Moving Beyond Transactions: Understanding Bitcoin’s Value Paradigm

In the ongoing debate around Bitcoin, Samson Mow makes a compelling argument: it’s not about how many transactions Bitcoin can process per second (TPS), but rather about the value it transacts in that time (VPTS). After all, what’s the point of pinging digital coffee orders if the actual financial impact flies under the radar?

Welcome to the New Financial Paradigm

Mow’s perspective challenges the conventional narrative that focuses solely on volume throughput. Instead, he posits that Bitcoin’s true strength lies in its ability to serve as a permissionless medium for the transfer and storage of wealth.

(Almost) Half a Million Dollars Every Second!

According to Mow, Bitcoin moves nearly half a million dollars globally every second—permissionlessly. Now, that’s the kind of impressive stat you can whip out at parties! This metric begs the question: if Bitcoin’s scaling was defined by value transacted rather than simply transaction count, would the conversations change?

Taking Aim at the Critics

In a recent Twitter spat, Mow took aim at some of the rival crypto assets, particularly XRP, that tout their TPS as a core feature. He remarked that their focus on transaction numbers is rather trivial when compared to Bitcoin’s VPTS. Sure, we can tally transactions all day long, but what’s the dollar amount behind those numbers?

“Bitcoin scales just fine. 1 BTC can store an infinite amount of value.” – A shoutout from Grubles, Blockstream’s engineering blog editor.

Challenging the Achilles Heel Argument

TPS has often been labeled as Bitcoin’s Achilles heel, especially by enthusiasts of alternative cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin Cash (BCH), which promote faster transaction speeds for retail transactions. Mow counters this narrative by emphasizing that Bitcoin serves a distinctly different role—from a store of value to a medium for large transfers—rather than a day-to-day transaction currency.

What’s the Verdict on Payments?

While admitting that Bitcoin isn’t optimized for daily transactions, Mow encourages looking into second-layer solutions, such as the Lightning Network, for those interested in smaller payment systems. Yes, comparing Bitcoin to a grocery store line might seem odd, but you won’t be finding a Tesla parked beside a vending machine anytime soon.

So, is the conversation shifting from TPS to VPTS? Perhaps Mow’s perspective invites us to rethink Bitcoin’s place in the financial ecosystem, not as a currency to buy your morning coffee, but as a backbone for a future financial landscape where the focus is on true value transfer.