The elephant in the room? Bitcoin isn't lighting fast. Solana has millions of daily active users, Bitcoin is lucky to have a few hundred thousand. The instinct reaction is to dismiss Bitcoin as obsolete, too slow, even inferior. Here’s why I say that this imagined flaw is, in fact, its most powerful attribute. What if that “lag” is actually a feature and not a bug?
Is Speed Really The Only Metric?
We’re used to living in a world focused on immediate results. We demand that our coffee is available in an instant, our deliveries are the same day, and our financial transactions… yesterday. This head-in-the-sand attitude has made its way into the crypto world. There, transaction speed takes the top spot as the ultimate measure of success. Let's step back for a second. Is speed always the most important factor?
Think about gold. After all, you can’t just slide a gold ingot across the counter to buy your morning latte. It's not practical for daily purchases. Despite all of this, gold has served as a store of value for thousands of years. Why? Due to its scarcity, its perceived durability, and its overall resistance to manipulation. Bitcoin, in its essence, is digital gold. It is a great safe haven, shielding you from the ravages of inflation. This asset functions as a store of value that operates independently of borders and government oversight.
Yet demanding Bitcoin to be as fast and efficient as Solana is unrealistic. It’s as if you expected a Swiss bank vault to have ATM-like access. They serve fundamentally different purposes. One focuses on security and long-term value, the other on speed and throughput.
HODLing: The Silent Revolution
Look at the numbers. More than 70% of all Bitcoin has been dormant for at least six months. That’s not a signal of stagnation, that’s a signal of conviction. It’s good news for Bitcoin. Here’s the thing, though – it’s good news for Bitcoin. They’re not just using it to purchase coffee, they’re HODLing it, they’re accumulating it, they’re securing their future with it.
This “HODLing” culture isn’t just a meme — it’s an incredible economic force. First, by creating demand and concurrently reducing the circulating supply, it drives up the price with it, boosting Bitcoin’s value proposition even more. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy: the more people HODL, the more valuable Bitcoin becomes. This isn’t an accident, this is brilliance!
Take MicroStrategy, for instance, which owns about 553,000 Bitcoins (about US$37 billion as of April 2025). Do you believe that you’ve got Michael Saylor concerned about Bitcoin transaction speeds? I doubt it. He’s not just playing a different game, he’s playing a long-term game, a game of scarcity and enduring value.
Institutional Money Talks Loudly
BlackRock does it again in April 2025, as the financial giant pours in another US$970 million into its Bitcoin ETF. That’s not just retail investors dabbling—that’s institutional money flowing into Bitcoin. These wealthy investors are the masters of the universe on Wall Street. After deep research and exploration of the market, they’ve decided to make Bitcoin a key part of their portfolio. They can’t be distracted by the chatter, they have to tune into what really matters. They understand the long-term vision, they understand the supply is limited, they understand the increasing adoption. They’re willing to accept Bitcoin’s “lag” as the cost of security and decentralization.
Let's not forget the halving events. Every four years the number of new Bitcoin released into circulation is halved. This is an artificial scarcity which inflates demand and has historically resulted in price hikes. It's a built-in mechanism that reinforces Bitcoin's long-term value.
These challenges have only multiplied given the rising economic uncertainty, inflation, and geopolitics in our world and the pandemic’s lingering impacts. In this environment, Bitcoin shines. As a result, it’s a decentralized, limited-supply alternative to traditional financial markets. It's a hedge against government monetary policy. It’s a store of value that is not readily confiscatable and controllable.
Yes, Bitcoin has its challenges. Opportunities & challenges Energy consumption has been a worry, and regulatory uncertainty hangs over the sector. These are issues that are not insurmountable. The basic value proposition of Bitcoin – its scarcity, its decentralization, its security – hasn’t changed.
So, the next time you hear someone complaining about Bitcoin's transaction lag, remember this: they're missing the point. They’re missing the big picture and looking at just the bits and pieces. Bitcoin was never designed to be a payment system — it was designed to be a store of value. It’s digital gold, and its “lag” is a result of its brilliance. It's about long-term value, not short-term convenience. And in the end, that’s what it’s all about anyway. Trust us when we say you’ll be glad you did—better now than six months from now!
