'A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.'

Bitcoin was created as an alternative to the legacy fiat monetary system. It was designed to enable direct payments between anyone wanting to free of censorship and intermediaries. This original intent has over time been slyly undermined by a wide range of tactics applied by the legacy fiat power brokers- bankers and governments.

Firstly the public perception of Bitcoin has been attacked via a variety of disingenuous attacks- claims it is only used by criminals, claims it is a waste of energy, claims it has no fundamental value. All these FUD claims do not stand close scrutiny but have gained widespread acceptance nevertheless.

Secondly based upon the asserted risk of money laundering KYC tracking has been imposed upon almost all Bitcoin trading platforms and even those platforms compliant with KYC requirements has often had their banking service access closed down. So a small number of CEXes have been allowed to operate strictly requiring KYC ownership tracking of Bitcoin.

Thirdly Bitcoin has almost universally been arbitrarily designated a commodity and thus liable for tax assessment upon each and every transaction- this hugely undermines the p2p payments intended purpose f the protocol and has pushed most Bitcoiners to hold Bitcoin as a Store of Value investment...and not use it as a Means of Exchange as the White Paper envisioned.

So Bitcoins use has been gradually steered away from a decentralised, censorship resistant P2P payments network to being much more used as a speculative commodity held in most cases with KYC tracking identifying the holder.

The commodification of Bitcoin is further advanced by the Spot ETFs. They remove custody of the Bitcoin into the hands of centralised fund managers. An ETF investor has no ability to use the protocol via their ETF shares except as a speculation upon the future price. An ETF investor has no custody of the Bitcoin held by the fund manager except to extract it in a fiat denominated form.

The ETFs effectively remove a growing ratio of the Bitcoin in existence from being able to be used for P2P payments.

If this progressive degrading of Bitcoins utility as a MoE continues its underlying value as an alternative to the legacy fiat monetary system is undermined.

The value of a monetary system relies heavily upon its ability to be used, as money. The USD is the strongest currency because it has massive transaction volume capacity, relatively stable value and it dominates global inter-bank payments system, SWIFT. So for international trade payments the USD is effectively required by all central banks. This huge volume capacity of the USD and its near universal acceptance, gives it value.

In contrast the acceptance of Bitcoin as a MoE is hugely restricted, if not prohibited by most banks and governments.

The Spot ETFs are not the first obstruction to Bitcoins intended purpose as a P2P MoE but they build upon a series of obstructions that have already been imposed.

The Spot ETFs could acquire a majority of all Bitcoin within a decade.

If the fundamental purpose and intent of the White Paper is continually degraded, at what point does Bitcoin cease to be a valid alternative to the state imposed fiat monetary monopoly?