Can Bitcoin have competing narratives?

Views for "what Bitcoin is" have evolved drastically since 2009

Author

Charlie Spears
July 29, 2025

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How “what Bitcoin is” has changed over the years

Bitcoin is very difficult to explain. Its purpose and place varies depending on who you ask. You will hear different explanations at a local Bitcoin meetup than you will in a corporate boardroom

In my opinion, the only way to really define what Bitcoin is is to run the code, but to explain what Bitcoin is is an ontological exercise. 

I like to say “Bitcoin is what it is used for.” That’s not very useful, but we have 16+ years of Bitcoin history to sift through that might be more useful to define Bitcoin.

How should we model Bitcoin?

Nic Carter and Hasu wrote a fantastic piece titled Visions of Bitcoin in 2018, which categorizes different visions about Bitcoin’s essence and purpose. They ranked different narratives for Bitcoin according to popularity over time. 

I consider this one of the most useful mental models for examining how to think about Bitcoin as a system of stakeholders, but the piece is now 7 years old and a lot has happened since. I’ve updated the chart and also added new narrative buckets.

Here’s my updated chart.

Now, let’s break down what each category means, and how these narratives have shifted since 2018.

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News From Blockspace

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Pure-play miners to outperform as HPC hybrids look stretched: J.P. Morgan 

J.P. Morgan refreshed its bitcoin miner coverage on July 28, updating models to reflect Q2 2025 operating metrics, a higher spot BTC assumption of $120,000 and a 900 EH/s network hashrate. The firm now favors pure-play miners over hybrid AI/HPC names, viewing the latter as “stretched” given long sales cycles and uncertain deal timelines. — link

Strategy prices 5X oversubscribed $2.47 billion STRC offering

Strategy (MSTR) has priced the initial public offering of 28,011,111 shares of its Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock (STRC) at $90 per share, raising approximately $2.47 billion in net proceeds. — link

Number of public companies with over 1,000 Bitcoin rises to 35: Fidelity VP

The number of publicly traded companies with at least 1,000 bitcoin on their balance sheets has climbed to 35 in early Q3 2025, up from 30 at the end of Q2 and just 24 at the end of Q1.  — link

Blockspace Podcasts

Bitcoin developer James O’Beirne joins us to talk about the current state of Bitcoin development, the controversial CTV (OP_CheckTemplateVerify) soft fork proposal, and why he organized a letter signed by 66+ prominent Bitcoin developers requesting Bitcoin Core focus on protocol upgrades.

With 145+ companies now adopting Bitcoin treasury strategies and institutions holding 10% of all Bitcoin, we explore whether this paper Bitcoin summer represents genuine adoption or a dangerous leveraged bubble waiting to burst.

Where we drop fun topics with nothing to do with Bitcoin.

On this day in 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs legislation that establishes the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The U.S. government establishes NASA as a direct response to Russia launching Sputnik, the first satellite to ever enter orbit.

-CBS, CMH