Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin white paper envisioned a “peer-to-peer electronic cash system,” but Bitcoin’s biggest proponent seems to have an entirely different view of its purpose.
Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor, whose company has been buying Bitcoin aggressively for nearly five years since adopting a Bitcoin (BTC) treasury strategy, presented what many described as plans for a “Bitcoin central bank” during his keynote speech at Bitcoin MENA.
Economist Saifedean Ammous, well-known in Bitcoin circles for penning The Bitcoin Standard, was also a notable figure attending the conference in Abu Dhabi. Ammous and Saylor are understood to converse regularly, with Saylor having written the foreword of Ammous’ most famous book.
Speaking on Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction show, Ammous acknowledged that Saylor does not view Bitcoin as money through the same lens as other Bitcoin proponents.
Related: Saylor pitches Bitcoin-backed banking system to nation-states
“I don’t think he sees Bitcoin as money. He’s been very clear about that. He sees Bitcoin more as an asset. One of the great metaphors he uses is that Bitcoin is like crude oil in that it is a hard asset,” Ammous said.
“Just like Standard Oil refined crude oil into standard forms of consumer oil like kerosene or gasoline, he sees Strategy’s role as refining crude Bitcoin into different forms of financial assets that allow people access to them.”
Saylor has used various existing corporate finance mechanisms to allow investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin.
The company’s Class A Common Stock (MSTR) allows investors to buy shares in Strategy, which acts as a leveraged play on the price of Bitcoin, as the company’s primary strategy is to accumulate BTC.
Strategy has also raised billions of dollars through offerings of convertible senior notes, a type of debt that can be converted into equity at a future date, to buy more Bitcoin. His most recent innovations saw the issuance of several classes of perpetual preferred stock (STRK, STRF, STRD, STRC) to institutional investors.
As of Dec. 15, Strategy had accumulated 671,268 Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is still money
While Saylor has gone on record to unpack his thesis on why Bitcoin is a hard asset that can serve as the basis for various financial products, Saifedean says Strategy’s Bitcoin playbook doesn’t alter Bitcoin’s monetary properties.
“I can see the logic behind it. Ultimately, it’s an academic issue. It doesn’t have much of real-world relevance,” Saifedean said.
“In theory, I think of Bitcoin itself as the money. I think of it as being the asset itself. And I think people just need to hold Bitcoin. And I think in the long run, people are going to hold Bitcoin. Now, as long as the fiat money printer exists, there will be all kinds of fiat games that can and will be played.”
Related: Hard money vs. privacy? Saifedean Ammous questions crypto’s privacy push
Saifedean said that global monetary supply increases by 7%-15% annually and that the system incentivizes the use of debt.
“There’s an enormous world that is used to getting into financial debt for all kinds of purposes. You’re going to see that increase. As Bitcoin grows, you’re going to be seeing these kinds of financial fiat tools and products being deployed on Bitcoin.”
What does that actually mean? Well, in short, businesses and individuals will need to acquire Bitcoin as pristine capital to access affordable debt.
“Ultimately, all of that has to be built on a foundation of buying Bitcoin. One way or the other, that just means more and more people buy Bitcoin and the size of cash balances in Bitcoin increases. And in my mind, that inevitably means that Bitcoin becomes the money itself.”
Ammous featured on Chain Reaction after Africa Bitcoin Corporation (ABC) announced that the economist would be advising the company.
ABC’s president, Stafford Masie, said Ammous’ primary motivation for advising ABC was the widespread adoption of Bitcoin across retail stores and the unique circular economies in South Africa.
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