Jack Dorsey "Bitcoin, not a virtual asset but currency itself"

Twitter founder and Bitcoin supporter Jack Dorsey said "Bitcoin is not crypto," reigniting debate within the industry.

On the 20th (local time), according to Cointelegraph, Jack Dorsey posted that sentence on X (formerly Twitter) and argued that "Bitcoin is fundamentally different from other cryptocurrencies." The post received more than 4,000 comments and sparked heated debate within the industry.

He emphasized that "Satoshi Nakamoto referred to Bitcoin not as a virtual asset but as 'currency'" and that "Bitcoin was designed as an electronic cash system based on cryptographic proof, not trust." In fact, the Bitcoin whitepaper published in 2008 never uses the term 'virtual asset' even once.

He went on to say that "Bitcoin is a pure P2P (peer-to-peer) electronic cash system" and "it is not a mere asset but currency itself." Dorsey said his companies Block and Square are promoting a zero-fee 0% Bitcoin payment feature and that "Bitcoin must become a practical means of payment."

However, there were critical voices within the industry. David Schwartz, Chief Technology Officer of Ripple, pointed out that "Jack Dorsey's remarks seem to intend to view Bitcoin only as a payment system, but it's unclear exactly what he meant." Some experts countered that "considering scalability and transaction processing speed issues, Bitcoin would find it difficult to function as a practical payment system."