Bitcoin Payments From Digital Gold to Everyday Currency

Bitcoin Payments: From Digital Gold to Everyday Currency

Co-Authored by Danny Stagg (Breez) & Dan O’Prey (1A1z)

1. The Emergence of Bitcoin as Everyday Currency

• "Bitcoin payments are here. Across industries and countries, they’re enabling real-time, peer-to-peer transactions without third parties. What was created to be electronic cash is now being used in everyday payments."
• "The maturation of the Lightning Network has further expanded bitcoin’s utility, making transactions faster, cheaper, and more scalable than ever before."
• "Whether for retail purchases, global remittances, or new digital payment models, bitcoin is proving itself as a real, everyday, working currency — not just a store of value."
• The introduction of USDT on Lightning further enhances its role as a settlement layer, allowing users to pay in USDt and settle in bitcoin without leaving the network.
• Bitcoin is evolving from a speculative asset to a functional medium of exchange, bridging the gap between digital gold and everyday currency.

2. Lightning Network Adoption and Growth

• "The Lightning Network now reaches over 650 million users; driven by integrations with mainstream products, new developer tools, and growing merchant adoption."
• "Unlike traditional payment networks, its adoption has been largely organic, growing from the grassroots level. No one dictated that OKX, Kraken, Binance, or Coinbase integrate Lightning, nor was Cash App or Nubank required to support it. Instead, businesses adopted Lightning in response to real demand."
• "Integrations with mainstream products like Cash App, Kraken, Binance, and Coinbase have accelerated Lightning's reach, demonstrating a bottom-up adoption driven by user demand rather than corporate mandates."
• Product builders are exploring groundbreaking applications like streaming payments, micropayments, and real-time global transfers, reshaping how value is exchanged online.
• Lightning's rapid expansion is fueled by its cost-efficiency, scalability, and seamless integration with existing financial systems, positioning it as a global, open payment network.

3. Real-World Utility and Impact

• "From major retailers to online platforms, businesses are proving bitcoin’s real-world utility. Global companies like Pick n Pay, Namecheap, and Mercari have added bitcoin payments, showcasing the impact of bitcoin as a payment method, improving user experiences, reducing costs, and providing global accessibility."
• "Whether in retail, remittances, or luxury goods, bitcoin is working as an everyday currency today."
• Bitcoin's real-world impact spans various sectors, including retail purchases, global remittances, and luxury goods, proving its utility as a functional currency.
• "Pick n Pay... customers can pay for goods... using bitcoin directly at the register... Lightning payments are currently the fastest payment method at the till, comparable to ‘tap-to-pay’ card payments, with lower fees than credit or debit cards."
• Namecheap experienced a "285% increase in total avg. monthly customers paying with bitcoin (2023 to 2024)" and saw "$73M revenue from bitcoin since 2020," highlighting the commercial viability of Bitcoin payments.
• "Mercari saw over 100,000 bitcoin payments on their marketplace... demonstrating the interest in bitcoin among the wider public."

4. Bitcoin’s Evolution Beyond Digital Gold

• "The prevailing narrative around bitcoin is that it’s ‘digital gold,’ a store of value designed to hedge against inflation and preserve wealth... but this is only part of the story."
• "Bitcoin wasn’t created to sit idly in wallets or ETFs. Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision was clear: bitcoin is peer-to-peer electronic cash, a decentralized form of money designed to move."
• "Bitcoin’s early usage for payments wasn’t a roaring success, especially at a meaningful scale. Critics understandably declared its failure as a medium of exchange and that bitcoin could only succeed as a speculative asset."
• "This report revisits where bitcoin payments stand today... how bitcoin is being used in novel ways to address them... evaluating whether bitcoin is moving beyond ‘just’ digital gold to plug the gap and enable internet-native payments that were never possible before."
• The narrative of Bitcoin as merely digital gold is evolving, with renewed focus on its use as electronic cash, aligning with its original vision of decentralized, peer-to-peer transactions.

5. Bitcoin Payments Infrastructure and Ecosystem

• "In six years, Lightning has become the ‘common language’ of the interoperable bitcoin economy — connecting products, subnetworks, enterprises, and end-users... adoption is happening organically."
• "The infrastructure to build with Lightning is vastly more mature... with a range of services enabling bitcoin payments — each offering different trade-offs in security, usability, and regulatory exposure."
• "New tools like the Breez SDK and Lightning-as-a-Service platforms, including Voltage, Lightspark, and Ibex, are enabling seamless integration of bitcoin payments into apps, removing the need for third-party involvement altogether."
• "USDt’s arrival on Lightning is set to further accelerate adoption. Users will now be able to pay in USDt and settle in bitcoin without needing to leave the network, making them natively compatible and interchangeable."
• Every approach contributes to bringing bitcoin payments to more people, connecting them to the broader ecosystem, and unlocking new possibilities for payments in everyday applications.

6. Why Use Bitcoin for Payments?

• Internet-Native Payments: "Bitcoin payments do not just replace the current system, they add utilities that are impossible with conventional payment technologies... real-time micropayments... streaming payments... continuous payments."
• Cheaper Transactions: "Traditional payments are expensive... Bitcoin changes this paradigm entirely... Funds can move globally at a fraction of the cost."
• Global Access: "Access to financial services is not evenly distributed throughout the world... Bitcoin payments provide effortless value transfer across jurisdictions."
• Bitcoin’s decentralized and borderless nature enables real-time, low-cost, and permissionless transactions, overcoming the limitations of traditional financial systems.

7. Why Not Use Stablecoins?

• "Stablecoins are not digitally native... they are digital representations of non-internet native assets... Essentially IOUs that promise to be redeemable for reserves held in the traditional financial system."
• "Centralization & Regulatory Uncertainty... custodians introduce a dilemma... they are vulnerable to censorship and counterparty risk."
• "By contrast, bitcoin relies on no reserves and no counterparty. Its decentralized network makes it resistant to censorship without exposing its holders to counterparty risk."
• Stablecoins carry the risks of centralized custody, regulatory scrutiny, and dependency on fiat reserves, unlike Bitcoin's decentralized and censorship-resistant nature.

8. Real-World Adoption and Case Studies

• Mercari in Japan: "Mercari saw over 100,000 bitcoin payments on their marketplace... demonstrating the interest in bitcoin among the wider public."
• Namecheap: "285% increase in total avg. monthly customers paying with bitcoin (2023 to 2024)" and "$73M revenue from bitcoin since 2020."
• Pick n Pay in South Africa: "Lightning payments... fastest payment method at the till... with lower fees than credit or debit cards."
• Charity:Water: "Bitcoin transactions often have lower fees than credit cards... The multiplier effect of bitcoin has been profound."
• Real-world case studies demonstrate Bitcoin’s effectiveness as a medium of exchange across retail, charity, and global remittances.

9. Conclusion and Future Outlook

• "Bitcoin is already a viable currency. Now. Today... Bitcoin adoption is often invisible because, like the currency itself, it’s decentralized."
• "The tools are ready, the ecosystem is growing, and the foundation is strong. Now is the time for bitcoin payments."
• "Bitcoin needs to be where people already spend their time... Integrating bitcoin payments directly into experiences... will further normalize its use and unlock its potential as the currency of the internet."
• Bitcoin is no longer just a speculative asset but is evolving into a global currency, reshaping the financial landscape and paving the way for a decentralized, internet-native economy.