Digital Asset News host Rob examines whether Bitcoin functions as money and reports on the atmosphere at the 2025 Bitcoin Conference
A solo commentary episode from the Digital Asset News channel discussing Bitcoin's monetary properties, its actual usage patterns, and reports from the Bitcoin Conference.
Summary
Rob, the host of Digital Asset News, opens with a structured analysis of whether Bitcoin qualifies as money, walking through both the functional and physical traits of money and assessing Bitcoin against each criterion. He argues that while Bitcoin technically satisfies most definitions of money, the reality is that almost nobody is actually using it for payments — a point he illustrates with data from Block's Bitcoin faucet promotion (April 6–10), which offered $5 back for purchasing $10 or more of Bitcoin in Cash App, or $25 back for using Cash App at a seller, yet struggled to distribute a million dollars over several days. He concludes that Bitcoin has effectively become a store-of-value asset and long-term inflation hedge rather than a peer-to-peer payment system, despite Jack Dorsey's and Block's efforts to push payment adoption. The second half of the episode covers reports from the 2025 Bitcoin Conference, where Rob relays commentary from several prominent Bitcoin figures — including Simon Dixon, Lawrence Lepard, and others — expressing concern that the conference has been compromised by institutional and political interests seeking to centralize Bitcoin. Rob closes with a live Q&A session covering topics including stablecoins, XRP, Chainlink, Michael Saylor's position, and the value of cold storage education.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Is Bitcoin Actually Money?
Rob (Digital Asset News): Is Bitcoin money? Can it be used as money? And are people using it as money in the way it was actually intended by the white paper? It is, but nobody's using it like that — or very, very few people are. So first we have to ask the question: what is money?
Money, as I break it down, is the sum of PADS — it's a nice little mnemonic to remember things. There's function and there's physical traits of money. The function of money is a store of value, a unit of account, and a medium of exchange. Now if you think about Bitcoin and how it actually works, you can say it makes sense. Bitcoin is a store of value. It is a unit of account — standard measures — and it is a medium of exchange. If you want some kind of nice car, you can just say "give me that car" and transfer Bitcoin over. That is the function of money.
Now as far as the physical traits of money, think about this. Is it portable? Well, it's absolutely portable. I can move it anywhere I want to. All I have to do is remember 12 or 24 words in my head — that's the mnemonic phrase — and I can move it anywhere I want to go. Is it divisible? Well, yes, because one Bitcoin has so many Satoshis in it. I think it's 3.4 quadrillion Satoshis for 21 million Bitcoin. So as far as divisibility, absolutely. And then scarcity — is it limited in supply? Absolutely. 21 million. You can't get more scarce than that. That is more scarce than any fiat currency being printed. That is more scarce than any gold, silver, or platinum being mined.
There's one thing I left out: accessibility — universally accepted for payments. Now here's the thing. We can use it for payments, but I'm going to ask you, as I've been asked this question quite a bit lately — even yesterday — when was the last time you used Bitcoin for payments? And I think we just need to be honest with ourselves.
Block, Jack Dorsey, and the Push for Bitcoin Payments
Talking about this, Block and Jack Dorsey have been really pushing this narrative. And it's good, because Jack Dorsey believes — like I believe — that Bitcoin was created for the purpose of peer-to-peer transactions, as far as the white paper goes. He really pushes that agenda. I wanted to see it too.
Block just put this out. They said: Bitcoin only works if people use it. Pay no attention to the fact of store of value, digital gold, or a hedge against inflation — it only works if people use it. I'm going to disagree. I think those three things I just mentioned make it functional.
They announced new features: a new BitKey cold storage device with 100% more screen, 5% Bitcoin back with Cash App at Square merchants, peer payments in Cash App. Sounds good, right?
I use Cash App every Monday. Cash App is what I use to buy Bitcoin. It works out great for the spreads and the fees — if you set up recurring payments. If you do a one-off purchase, the fees and spreads are actually kind of high. You have to do recurring payments.
I said, look, this needs to be done. And Bitcoin only gets used if we have vendors to spend it at. I'd love to spend it — give me the vendors. I'm in El Paso vacationing right now. Here are the vendors we see: there are roughly 45 to 48 of them. And almost most of them I'm not going to use. I don't need a hair stylist — this hair is as good as it's going to get. I don't want car detailing or vintage clothing. So out of those 48 vendors, I've got a couple of dive bars and a couple of good options, but this has to be universally accepted. And that's just not it.
The Bitcoin Faucet Experiment
Then as far as the proof goes — remember that Bitcoin faucet that ran from April 6th to April 10th? I was blown away because they were giving away a million dollars. Dollars — first of all, it's denominated in dollars. All you had to do was purchase $10 or more of Bitcoin in the Cash App and you would get $5 in Bitcoin back, or you could use the Cash App at a seller and earn $25. You could have paid like two bucks for something and got $25 in Bitcoin. I thought, okay, it runs from the 6th to the 10th — a million dollars is going to go in like a couple of hours.
Guess how long it took. On the first day, I think only a couple hundred thousand had been pushed out. The second day, I think it was like $300,000 to $400,000. I think the final day they actually caught up. But I'm like — you can't even give this away as far as payments go.
And it's not just me. Jack Dorsey has even said, look, we believe Bitcoin should be used through the Cash App, but it looks like stablecoin support is going to be the way to go — USDC and Tether. The official statement was this: "Cash App is and always will be Bitcoin-first by design. We see stablecoins in Cash App as a completely complementary option for our customers and an improvement from legacy payment rails. Bitcoin serves as a foundation for an open and borderless financial system, while stablecoins serve as a stepping stone to quickly move digital dollars."
So again, I still think Bitcoin could be used as payments, but no one's going that route. And it seems like stablecoins are going to win out.
Who Is Actually Holding Bitcoin?
Just to move on before we get into the vibes going on at the Bitcoin Conference right now — strange days — let's look at who's buying it, who's using it, what's going on.
Just take a look at Bitcoin treasuries. As far as the percent of 21 million, you're almost at 20%. And where is Bitcoin being used? It's being used by ETFs. And guess what? No one's using that for payments — it's a buy-and-hold strategy. Countries, as they seize it — like the United States, China, and others — are just going to hold on to it, maybe sell a little off, maybe use it as a store of value. Public companies, private companies, Bitcoin mining companies, DeFi — that's 18.59% of supply. How many of these are using it as cash? They're not.
And the most famous of the companies, of course, is Michael Saylor's Strategy, which just purchased — well, today, April 27th — another 3,000 Bitcoin. They now hold 818,000 Bitcoin. They almost have 1 million out of the 21 million that will ever exist. Do you think Michael Saylor is going to be using this as a cash option? I doubt it.
So to me, I look at this and think: all right, I wanted it one way, but this is pretty much how the market's going. I don't make the rules. This is pretty much it. Maybe down the line they'll start using it. But let me know in the comments what you're using Bitcoin for.
We talked about this at length yesterday when discussing Ben McKenzie and his book. And the first point was: what does Bitcoin do? It's a hedge against inflation — it just is, and it's doing pretty well. It's a long-term store of value, not a short-term one. If you take a look at money supply as it goes up, Bitcoin is a hedge against inflation. There's only 21 million — a secure, fixed supply. And you can see that as a store of value, as fiat gets debased, we can use less and less Bitcoin for an ever-increasing price of real estate, stocks, land, precious metals, devices — anything you can think of. It is a long-term store of value. I'm not here to fight it. That's just pretty much how it is. That's what I see.
It's a technology play. Like in the early days of man, when man discovered iron ore, they didn't think they were going to use iron ore for skyscrapers, buildings, defense, tanks. They had no idea. They just thought, "Oh, this is cool, I'm going to use this as a flint or a blunt object." Same thing with Bitcoin. We thought it was going to be peer-to-peer transactions. Guess not — store of value it is.
Strange Vibes at the Bitcoin Conference
But the vibes at the Bitcoin Conference right now — things are evolving, and there are strange things going on. This is from Bitcoin Bro, who says: "I see two Bitcoiners and six shills." He lists Eric Trump, Mike Seely (Chairman of the CFTC), Paul Atkins (SEC) — I've got no problem with those — Cash Patel and Todd Blanch, CIA and Attorney General. I don't know if they're actually there because of the assassination attempt that took place this weekend. And then Jack Dorsey and David Bailey from Nakamoto fame.
Lawrence Lepard — if you don't know who he is, you've got to follow him, he's one of the OGs — says: "Exactly. Saylor and Dorsey should abandon this conference. It will collapse." And David Bailey was in the chats, which is kind of awkward. Hate to hear it. Sorry for your loss. Best of luck. Thank you.
And then Nixon says, "Larry, don't you own Nakamoto, which is from David Bailey?" And Lepard says, "No. Bitcoin Opportunity Fund. We sold it. Someone needs to call out the grifting."
Also, Simon Dixon — a friend of the show — says: "Let's face it, this Bitcoin Conference is compromised. Bitcoin is open source and the world's largest supercomputer. It's a big mistake not to understand the difference." He goes into detail and says, "This is why I no longer speak at Bitcoin conferences. The conferences are created and sponsored by those who want to centralize as much Bitcoin as possible into financial industrial complex wrappers" — which I think we just saw illustrated here.
So Simon's saying it. Bitcoin Teacher is saying it's giving bad vibes. And then also Heidi from Blockchain Chick: "Are these the people you want shaping Bitcoin's future?"
I'm not here to debate it. I'm just telling you what's going on. And that's where we're at. Things are changing. Depends on what you think about where we're going.
Live Q&A
Rob: Jimmy says: "Just in from the Bitcoin Conference — Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming says crypto market structure legislation will get to the finish line in May." We'll see. I sure hope so. I don't think it's going to pass, but I sure hope it does. That'd be great.
Tricet says, "I never cared for Simon." Simon's a smart guy and he was one of the 2011 investors and has been a part of a lot of the big companies that are making Bitcoin what it is today. I know some people say, "Well, he was invested in Coinbase." Yeah — I think we need an exchange, don't we?
Vision Pulse Fat Boy says May or June will bankrupt Saylor. We'll see. I think his average cost of purchase is around $74,000. I think Bitcoin's holding up there. Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as paying dividends on the preferred stock, doesn't Bitcoin have to go below like $10,000 or $12,000? I forgot which one it was, but I think he'll be okay.
This says: "Sounds like a seldom news event." Yeah, maybe so. And remember there's this thing coming up — sell in May and go away. If any of you have had profits — because as I remember, didn't we bottom in February? So if you were buying in February and you're coming up on some profits, I'm just saying that's one of the rules. Nothing wrong — nobody ever broke taking profits. Just saying.
Octadron says, "Rob, are you buying the Bitwise Chainlink ETF?" No, I'm not. I don't buy any of the ETFs. What I do recommend — and we've talked about this — if you guys are orange-pilling anybody out there, please explain to them what Bitcoin is being used for. Also, please explain to them about cold storage devices. Also, please explain about hacks. If you don't want to do all that, just put them into an ETF or go through iTrust and have that institutional-grade custody. It's the easiest thing. Even your grandma can do it. And for her to get scammed out of it — there is a way that iTrust allows you to sell your Bitcoin and crypto within their custodial accounts that will frustrate you just enough to make sure you won't get scammed. So if your mother, father, grandparents — whoever you've orange-pilled — just have them go through iTrust and let them deal with it.
Fan Man says, "Rob, can you clarify — what most don't realize is stablecoins linked to the dollar will also lose their value and be inflated away." You're right. It's one-to-one to the dollar. Don't take my word for it — just do a Google search for the CPI Inflation Calculator from the BLS, the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Put in any amount of money. I put in $1,000 in 2000 — it has the same buying power as roughly $2,000 today. So yeah, it gets inflated away, obviously. Because the dollar flows into the stablecoin and the stablecoin is backed one-to-one by the US dollar. And because every single country out there prints their currency or their fiat, that's a debasement of the currency.
This is why my grandmother told me: "If you want to be successful, sweetheart, just work at a company for 40 years, get a nice pension, put everything into a savings account, and you'll be rich when you retire." First of all, tell that to a lot of government or corporate employees who no longer have pensions. And then also, if you were saving money and you put it into a bank account and now the purchasing power is half of what it used to be — that's pretty crappy. And that's the world we live in, everybody.
Fan Man says, "So why do we hold stablecoins then?" Same reason why we hold the dollar. Because when I'm going to El Paso or Puerto Rico and I'm having the best OG Smashburger with a No Mames Way beer — which is a microbrew, and it's delicious — I can't pay for that with anything other than my debit card. And if I have stablecoins on it, so much the better. Now, if I'm into remittances and sending money back to family in Mexico, I can do that with a stablecoin and I can do it a heck of a lot cheaper than Wells Fargo or any of the other remittance companies out there. So that's one of the reasons — same reason why we have dollars.
But people would say, "Well, why don't you just hold everything in Bitcoin?" You can do that, but it sure would suck if you put everything in at $125,000 and then it went down to — what was the bottom? $59K. That kind of sucks for some people.
Somebody says XRP is garbage. Well, I mean — it's a nice big area where you can store things. I know it's garbage, but it's funny.
No one explains Bitcoin better than Julian. Called the exit manual. Sounds great.
Even Brad said banks don't have to hold XRP, so how the hell is it going to — I don't know. That's why everybody gets dumped on, unfortunately. It goes right back to their wallet, so whatever.
Ed says, "When's the NFA live conference?" At some point it would be great to have me, Guy, and Ben all in one place. That'd be pretty fun. But I don't know when that would actually happen or where it would happen. I'm not going to Dubai. Hell with that.
As far as this week, NFA Live is on Guy's channel over at Coin Bureau. And check out the Bitcoin Conference — see how crazy it gets.