<blockquote>
<p><strong>Where did Staoshi Nakamoto stated that bitcoin is gold or digital gold?</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>He didn't.</p>
<p>Not in any of his public writings.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>an argument that Bitcoin is a store of value and not a meant of payment.</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>In his <a href="https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">original whitepaper</a>, Satoshi Nakamoto was very clear that they saw Bitcoin as a means of payment.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What is needed is an electronic payment system</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The whitepaper does not mention the phrase &quot;store of value&quot;. Since they were undoubtedly aware of this property of currencies, we must infer it was not of <em>primary</em> importance in the motivation for the design of Bitcoin.</p>
<p>So it would be surprising if there is any evidence available that would conclusively prove that Nakomoto completely changed their mind about this.</p>
<hr />
<p>See also <a href="http://sampatt.com/blog/2019/06/06/breakdown-of-all-satoshi-writings-proves-bitcoin-not-built-primarily-as-store-of-value" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Breakdown of all Satoshi's Writings Proves Bitcoin not Built Primarily as Store of Value</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Did Satoshi build Bitcoin to serve primarily as a store of value, or did he build it for making payments?</p>
<p>To answer this question, I went straight to the source. Thanks to the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute’s archives I was able to read every single thing Satoshi ever posted publicly. Comments from 260 forum threads, 63 emails, and his original source code.</p>
<p>After reviewing all of Satoshi’s writings, I can confidently state that Bitcoin was not purpose-built to first be a store of value. It was built for payments.</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-06T16:17:10.930Z
2020-09-06T17:03:39.340Z
2020-09-06T17:03:39.340Z
RedGrittyBrick
<p>Satoshi compared Bitcoin mining to gold in the digital realm in his original design paper (white paper): <a href="https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf</a></p>
<p>Satoshi wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&quot;The steady addition of a constant of amount of new coins is analogous to gold miners expending resources to add gold to circulation. In our case, it is CPU time and electricity that is expended.&quot;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is literally Satoshi drawing a parallel between Bitcoin and gold in terms of their creation process and is akin to saying Bitcoin is like digital gold. Both Bitcoin and gold involve a resource-intensive extraction process.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-04-18T14:40:20.257Z
The question is titled "Where did Staoshi Nakamoto state that **bitcoin is gold** or digital gold?". Saying a characteristic of the creation of A is analogous to a characteristic of the creation of  B is not saying A is B. It is not saying that A and B have any other characteristics in common.
RedGrittyBrick
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-04-19T15:39:25.750Z
Hi Adelle - welcome to bitcoin.se, and thanks for contributing.  Please note that we try like to keep content helpful, direct, and on-point, and consider everyone to be asking questions in good faith.  Please take a look at the [tour] and read the [expected behavior](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/help/behavior) section in the [help].
Hannah Vernon
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-04-18T13:32:04.257Z
2024-04-19T15:35:16.243Z
2024-04-19T15:35:16.243Z
Adelle Nazarian
<p>I'm confronted by someone who states that Satoshi Nakamoto never compared Bitcoin to gold in the monetary sense (not about mining).</p>
<p>However, I'm sure that I recall a quote from Satoshi stating Bitcoin is digital gold which was used several years ago in the debate of Bitcoin vs Bitcoin Cash as an argument that Bitcoin is a store of value and not a means of payment.</p>
<p>I'm failing to find it again. The only thing I found is about Bitcoin mining, but this isn't in the meaning I need to prove.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-06T16:44:30.340Z
There is an allegedly complete collection of Satoshi's public writings at https://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/.  The [github repo](https://github.com/NakamotoInstitute/nakamotoinstitute.org) has everything in json format which you could search for the word "gold".  I got 66 hits which you should be able to go through fairly fast.
Nate Eldredge
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-08T07:14:03.057Z
[This](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=721.msg8114#msg8114)?
Nat
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-08T07:34:54.963Z
@Nat I said in monetary terms so not about mining.
user2284570
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-08T07:41:42.117Z
[This](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=583.msg11405#msg11405) would seem to be the next closest thing.  Barring that, potentially a misquote?
Nat
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-08T22:24:47.200Z
In pondering what the usefulness of Bitcoin might be, there are many interesting and pertinent considerations, but *"What Satoshi intended"* isn't really one of them. Perhaps his motivation and intent is of historical interest, but it does not change what Bitcoin *is* today. And anyways, arguments about 'store of value vs payments' are naïvely mutually exclusive.
chytrik
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-08T22:29:32.743Z
@chytrik the problem when you have someone citing is own Bitcoin proponent that Bitcoin was never meant to be scarce (not on purpose). Then tour best bet is to refer Satoshi.
user2284570
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-08T22:38:42.603Z
Thats not a problem, people are free to have opinions about what Satoshi intended, but such opinions have no affect on what bitcoin *is*. Someone arguing that it *"was never meant to be scarce"* can simply be directed to the lines of code that defined the block subsidy in the original codebase. We don't need to read between the lines of Satoshi's writings on that point, scarcity was hard-coded in from day one. Whether that means Satoshi saw BTC as a gold equivalent (or not) doesn't change the reality of it being such a thing (or not).
chytrik
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-08T22:53:27.343Z
@chytrik in my case it s used as an argument that the fiat credit system was meant to cohoxist with Bitcoin and thus I shouldn t search borrowing in Bitcoin. In contrast, if Bitcoin scarcity is on purpose then it s a step at demonstrating that Bitcoin is meant to replace fiat as seen by the ecb and many of it s proponents and that having a proper credit system on Bitcoin is a milestone or not.
user2284570
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-08T22:53:44.733Z
@chytrik The argument that Bitcoin is not digital gold has to be defeated for me to receive answers in my search or founding of a service for borrowing in Bitcoin. As I m paid in cryptocurrency, this is the only thing I can borrow safely against my income which is why I care about the answer.
user2284570
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-08T22:57:00.430Z
@chytrik so it s about wiewing scarcity as a requirement for the payment system to work or as an on purpose design decision.
user2284570
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-08T23:49:33.400Z
@user2284570 I think that the questions you posed in your comment replies are great, but I mean to point out that the answer to them doesn't depend on what Satoshi intended, it instead depends on what the reality of Bitcoin *is*. And in the debate about what Bitcoin *is*, opinions about Satoshi's intent are rather inconsequential.
chytrik
<satoshi-nakamoto>
Where did Satoshi Nakamoto state that bitcoin is gold or digital gold?
user2284570
# Where did Satoshi Nakamoto state that bitcoin is gold or digital gold?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-09-06)

I'm confronted by someone who states that Satoshi Nakamoto never compared Bitcoin to gold in the monetary sense (not about mining).

However, I'm sure that I recall a quote from Satoshi stating Bitcoin is digital gold which was used several years ago in the debate of Bitcoin vs Bitcoin Cash as an argument that Bitcoin is a store of value and not a means of payment.

I'm failing to find it again. The only thing I found is about Bitcoin mining, but this isn't in the meaning I need to prove.

**Tags:** satoshi-nakamoto

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: There is an allegedly complete collection of Satoshi's public writings at https://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/.  The [github repo](https://github.com/NakamotoInstitute/nakamotoinstitute.org) has everything in json format which you could search for the word "gold".  I got 66 hits which you should be able to go through fairly fast.  
> **username_2**: [This](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=721.msg8114#msg8114)?  
> **username_0**: @username_2 I said in monetary terms so not about mining.  
> **username_2**: [This](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=583.msg11405#msg11405) would seem to be the next closest thing.  Barring that, potentially a misquote?  
> **username_3**: In pondering what the usefulness of Bitcoin might be, there are many interesting and pertinent considerations, but *"What Satoshi intended"* isn't really one of them. Perhaps his motivation and intent is of historical interest, but it does not change what Bitcoin *is* today. And anyways, arguments about 'store of value vs payments' are naïvely mutually exclusive.  
> **username_0**: @username_3 the problem when you have someone citing is own Bitcoin proponent that Bitcoin was never meant to be scarce (not on purpose). Then tour best bet is to refer Satoshi.  
> **username_3**: Thats not a problem, people are free to have opinions about what Satoshi intended, but such opinions have no affect on what bitcoin *is*. Someone arguing that it *"was never meant to be scarce"* can simply be directed to the lines of code that defined the block subsidy in the original codebase. We don't need to read between the lines of Satoshi's writings on that point, scarcity was hard-coded in from day one. Whether that means Satoshi saw BTC as a gold equivalent (or not) doesn't change the reality of it being such a thing (or not).  
> **username_0**: @username_3 in my case it s used as an argument that the fiat credit system was meant to cohoxist with Bitcoin and thus I shouldn t search borrowing in Bitcoin. In contrast, if Bitcoin scarcity is on purpose then it s a step at demonstrating that Bitcoin is meant to replace fiat as seen by the ecb and many of it s proponents and that having a proper credit system on Bitcoin is a milestone or not.  
> **username_0**: @username_3 The argument that Bitcoin is not digital gold has to be defeated for me to receive answers in my search or founding of a service for borrowing in Bitcoin. As I m paid in cryptocurrency, this is the only thing I can borrow safely against my income which is why I care about the answer.  
> **username_0**: @username_3 so it s about wiewing scarcity as a requirement for the payment system to work or as an on purpose design decision.  
> **username_3**: @username_0 I think that the questions you posed in your comment replies are great, but I mean to point out that the answer to them doesn't depend on what Satoshi intended, it instead depends on what the reality of Bitcoin *is*. And in the debate about what Bitcoin *is*, opinions about Satoshi's intent are rather inconsequential.  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2020-09-06. Score: 4

> **Where did Staoshi Nakamoto stated that bitcoin is gold or digital gold?**

He didn't.

Not in any of his public writings.

> **an argument that Bitcoin is a store of value and not a meant of payment.**

In his [original whitepaper](https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf), Satoshi Nakamoto was very clear that they saw Bitcoin as a means of payment.

> What is needed is an electronic payment system

The whitepaper does not mention the phrase "store of value". Since they were undoubtedly aware of this property of currencies, we must infer it was not of *primary* importance in the motivation for the design of Bitcoin.

So it would be surprising if there is any evidence available that would conclusively prove that Nakomoto completely changed their mind about this.

---

See also [Breakdown of all Satoshi's Writings Proves Bitcoin not Built Primarily as Store of Value](http://sampatt.com/blog/2019/06/06/breakdown-of-all-satoshi-writings-proves-bitcoin-not-built-primarily-as-store-of-value)

> Did Satoshi build Bitcoin to serve primarily as a store of value, or did he build it for making payments?
>
> To answer this question, I went straight to the source. Thanks to the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute’s archives I was able to read every single thing Satoshi ever posted publicly. Comments from 260 forum threads, 63 emails, and his original source code.
>
> After reviewing all of Satoshi’s writings, I can confidently state that Bitcoin was not purpose-built to first be a store of value. It was built for payments.


---

### Answer by username_5 on 2024-04-18. Score: 0

Satoshi compared Bitcoin mining to gold in the digital realm in his original design paper (white paper): <https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf>

Satoshi wrote:

> "The steady addition of a constant of amount of new coins is analogous to gold miners expending resources to add gold to circulation. In our case, it is CPU time and electricity that is expended."

This is literally Satoshi drawing a parallel between Bitcoin and gold in terms of their creation process and is akin to saying Bitcoin is like digital gold. Both Bitcoin and gold involve a resource-intensive extraction process.

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: The question is titled "Where did Staoshi Nakamoto state that **bitcoin is gold** or digital gold?". Saying a characteristic of the creation of A is analogous to a characteristic of the creation of  B is not saying A is B. It is not saying that A and B have any other characteristics in common.  
> **username_6**: Hi username_5 - welcome to bitcoin.se, and thanks for contributing.  Please note that we try like to keep content helpful, direct, and on-point, and consider everyone to be asking questions in good faith.  Please take a look at the [tour] and read the [expected behavior](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/help/behavior) section in the [help].  

---

