When people talk about Bitcoin, the first question is almost always: “What’s the price in (insert your local currency)?” But many Bitcoin supporters argue that measuring it in fiat currency misses the point.
Why? Because fiat money constantly changes in value itself. A dollar today does not buy what it did ten or twenty years ago. If the measuring stick is shrinking, are we measuring accurately?
Instead of asking “How many dollars is Bitcoin worth?”, some argue we should ask “What can Bitcoin buy?”
For example:
- In 2015, one Bitcoin might have bought a decent second-hand car. Today, in many places, one Bitcoin could buy a brand-new family car—or several used ones.
- A house deposit that once required multiple Bitcoin may now require only a fraction of one.
- A flight across the Atlantic, once equivalent to a noticeable chunk of Bitcoin, may now cost only a tiny percentage of a coin.
Bitcoin advocates say these comparisons matter because they focus on purchasing power rather than currency conversion. The real question becomes whether one Bitcoin buys more or less of real-world goods and services over time.
Some even compare Bitcoin to scarce assets rather than fiat. How much gold can one Bitcoin buy? How many shares of a major company? How many hours of labour? Viewed this way, Bitcoin becomes less of a speculative number on a screen and more of a tool for storing value relative to things people actually want or need.
Critics point out that fiat still matters because wages, mortgages, taxes, and groceries are mostly priced in fiat such as dollars. That is true—for now. But Bitcoin supporters argue that constantly translating Bitcoin into fiat is like measuring a new ruler with an old ruler that itself keeps changing length.
Perhaps the more interesting question is not “How many dollars is Bitcoin worth?” but “How much real-world value does one Bitcoin command today compared with yesterday?”
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