#Gate广场披萨节 In the Payment War: The Defeat of Bitcoin

If a single lunch cost you $1 billion, how many times more expensive than Warren Buffett’s lunch would that be? Would you consider yourself the dumbest person in the world or the wealthiest?
On May 22, 2010, a programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas with 10,000 bitcoins, worth about $25 in total.
Afterward, not only was this transaction recorded in blockchain history, but the day it happened was also called “Bitcoin Pizza Day.”
This was also the first case where Bitcoin was used as a means of payment in real life.

However, as Bitcoin’s price fluctuated wildly over decades, calculating at its peak in 2025 (about $100k), the cost of that pizza would exceed $1 billion. That’s right! That’s Bitcoin’s price!

Clearly, neither party in this transaction considered the “price volatility” issue.
Satoshi Nakamoto initially hoped Bitcoin could be used like cash for daily transactions, but perhaps that idea has also faded today.
In real life, Bitcoin’s extreme price volatility and scarce issuance mechanism induce users to prefer “holding” rather than “spending.”
Bitcoin’s narrative has shifted from a “payment revolution” to a “diversification tool” and a “hedge asset against global liquidity contraction.”
It is no longer just “digital cash” for buying coffee but has become “digital gold” to fight inflation.
Although Bitcoin was designed to replace fiat currency as a peer-to-peer payment tool, its highly volatile price characteristics make it more like a high-risk financial asset rather than a universal currency.

Buyers fear that “the Bitcoin (or other highly volatile cryptocurrencies) they spend today might appreciate 10% tomorrow,” while sellers worry that “the Bitcoin they receive might depreciate 20% tomorrow.”
Faced with this situation, the Bitcoin community has also tried to make changes. For example, through SegWit to reduce transaction size and improve throughput; through the Lightning Network to build “off-chain channels” to solve micro-payments and real-time transactions;
However, due to high user operation thresholds and the limited number of network maintenance nodes, these efforts ultimately failed to achieve large-scale adoption.

More than technological possibilities, the hardest thing to change is human nature. As for ourselves, we no longer expect to use Bitcoin for payments. Instead, we hoard coins in bear markets “waiting for the price to rise,” and during bull markets, we watch “for even higher gains.” Bitcoin has gradually lost its transactional attribute and become a long-term store of value.
When one narrative fades, another emerges. Perhaps it is this shift in storytelling that has allowed stablecoins to emerge and grow rapidly.
The world of Web3 still follows the jungle law: every project, every chain is fighting for territory, constantly expanding its base.
For ordinary users, more understanding and reflection are needed to find a path that belongs to oneself. $BTC ‌ ‌