🔋 Use, Used, and Using
FIRE BTC #46 - Spend your bitcoin when you're done using it
Every once in a while, I see a concept framed in a way that distills it to its essence in the most succinct way possible. It creates a bit of a lightbulb moment.
This issue of FIRE BTC is inspired by an X post from my friend and colleague, Tom Honzik. It was a lightbulb post for me. It’s not that the concept was new to me, but his framing crystallized it in a way that felt obvious… “Duh, of course!”
Something I hear a lot when people ask about bitcoin is: “I see that it’s gone up a lot in the past, and it’s reasonable to expect that to continue, but when can I actually USE it?”
It’s a fair question, but it starts from the wrong assumption. Most people think using money means spending it. In reality, the primary way we use money is by holding it. Spending only happens when we’re done using it.
Let’s unpack why.
🎯 The real purpose of money
The purpose of money is twofold:
To solve the coincidence of wants problem. Imagine I grow apples but want shoes. Without money, I need to find a shoemaker who happens to want apples at the same time I want shoes. With money, I can sell apples to anyone, then use that money to buy shoes.
To reduce uncertainty about the future. None of us can predict exactly what we’ll need next week, next year, or ten years from now. Holding money gives us optionality—it allows us to trade for whatever we need, whenever we need it.
This is the real utility of money: it buys us flexibility. When we hold money, we’re actively using it to reduce uncertainty and preserve options. Spending is just the final step, the moment we’ve finished using it for those two core purposes.
So in essence: saving money is using it.
🌀 How fiat distorts our experience of money
The fiat system breaks this natural order. Dollars are engineered to lose value. If you save them long-term, you’re guaranteed to leak purchasing power. That means dollars fail at money’s most important role: reducing uncertainty over time.
So people adapt. They either:
Spend quickly before their dollars lose too much value, or
Search for substitutes—stocks, bonds, real estate—to protect their future optionality.
But substitutes come with their own risks and frictions. Assets can crash. They can’t be spent directly. To use them, you first have to sell, pay fees, and convert back to dollars. It’s clunky and inefficient—a patched-up version of barter.
Because of this, everyday experience with money becomes narrowly focused on spending. Dollars are useful for transactions today, but terrible for holding value tomorrow. That’s why people instinctively equate “using money” with “spending money.”
💡 The bitcoin reframe
This fiat-driven mindset creates a false understanding of bitcoin. Bitcoin can be used for both saving and spending. In fact, it excels as a store of value and as a medium of exchange.
Holding bitcoin is using it. It gives you optionality, preserves purchasing power, and reduces uncertainty about the future. And when you’re done using it for that purpose, you can spend it directly—without the friction of liquidating other assets first.
Of course, bitcoin is still early. Most people don’t yet see why they should hold it, let alone accept it as payment. But that will change.
Over time, as adoption spreads, and number go up technology does its thing, people will realize the truth: You don’t have to wait to “use” bitcoin. You already are.
That’s it for this week — thanks for reading!
Until next time,
Trey ✌️