Jack Dorseys Bitcoin Group Says BTC Is Losing Payments Race to Stablecoins Bitcoin payment technology has improved dramatically. Usage has not kept pace. Spiral, the blockchain open source bitcoin development team, says the biggest obstacle to bitcoin payments is no longer technology. It's demand. Lightning wallets, payment infrastructure and merchant tools have improved significantly over the past seven years, but people still rarely spend BTC for everyday purchases. Meanwhile, stablecoins are quickly moving into payments through companies like Pass and Shopify, while becoming increasingly important for AI-driven payment systems. Spiral points to several reasons why Bitcoin still struggles as everyday money: Holders expect BTC to appreciate, so they prefer not to spend it.
Merchants see little reason to add bitcoin if customers don't ask for it.
The price volatility makes it difficult to use BTC as a unit of account.
Tax rules could make every Bitcoin payment a taxable event The group is now asking developers for more aggressive ideas to increase real-world use, including BTC and dollar payments on Lightning, merchant discounts, rewards and micropayments for AI services. Important: A spiral does not mean that the lightning has failed. Her argument is almost the opposite. The rails work more and more. The bigger question is whether enough people actually want to use them. Bitcoin may have solved a large part of the technological problem. Adopting payments can be more difficult.