Jack Dorsey, CEO of Block and former CEO of Twitter (Now X), has cautioned that Bitcoin may risk losing relevance if it remains solely a store of value. Speaking during an interview at Presidio Bitcoin, Dorsey emphasized the necessity for Bitcoin to evolve beyond mere “hodling” to ensure its long-term viability, highlighting the importance of enhancing Bitcoin’s utility. “I think it fails through irrelevance,” Dorsey stated. “If it just ends up being store of value and nothing more, I don’t think it gains relevance at all. I think it has to be payments for it to be relevant on the everyday.” Dorsey emphasized that for Bitcoin to succeed long-term, it needs to transition into a practical payment system used in daily transactions. Without this evolution, he believes Bitcoin could become something people “kind of buy and forget and only use in emergency situations.” The tech entrepreneur further pointed to emerging circular economies in regions outside the Western financial bubble as evidence of Bitcoin’s potential. “ You get down to Central America, South America, Africa… people are using Bitcoin to buy coffee, to buy dinner, to pay vendors. There’s tiny little circular economies happening, and they’re not talking about price,” he explained. His comments come as Bitcoin maximalists continue to be criticized for their rigid stance against innovation beyond the original Bitcoin protocol and their reluctance to embrace layer-two solutions that could enhance Bitcoin’s utility. Dorsey challenged maximalist thinking by expressing that the community “can do better than Lightning,” referring to the Lightning Network, a popular second-layer solution designed to enable faster Bitcoin transactions. “ I don’t think we just want to settle with having one layer two. I think we need to experiment a whole lot more and have different alternatives,” he said. Notably, several projects are already working toward making Bitcoin more open and accessible, including efforts to improve scalability, privacy, and payment functionality. Cardano , for example, has been developing interoperability solutions that could potentially enhance Bitcoin’s utility while maintaining its fundamental value proposition. Under Dorsey’s leadership, Block is also actively contributing to this vision through projects like an open-source mining rig, self-custodial wallet development, and their Cash App’s Bitcoin exchange. These initiatives aim to further decentralize Bitcoin’s infrastructure and make the cryptocurrency more accessible for everyday use. That said, as BTC approaches its 17 th year, Dorsey believes it stands at a crossroads. “ We have not lived up to that potential…we’re still pretty far away from it actually,” he noted, referring to Bitcoin’s original vision of “a peer-to-peer electronic cash system.” For Bitcoin to fulfill its promise as a true alternative to government-controlled currencies, he suggested the community must continue building “simple, accessible experiences that solve the payment use case” while making the network faster and more private, giving “real competition” to traditional payment networks like Visa and Mastercard.
