Regarding the winding down of Black Friday program, Holmquist said “I have decided not to continue running the Bitcoin Black Friday event. After 7 years, and 6 successful events, I have fallen out of love with using bitcoin as a means of consumer payment.”
Holmquist further stated that he no longer has any interest in advocating BTC for consumer payments. He disputed that Bitcoin is an asset for long-term investment, in addition to being a financial tool. Therefore, according to Homquist, settlement should be preferably done using altcoins such as Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
Holmquist justified his opinion with the following statement:
“Although other alternatives like BCH exist, I think that the fundamental use case of Bitcoin is, and remains, a form of investment and as a new financial instrument.”
The announcement has been made at a time when Bitcoin has lost roughly 20% in the past one week to trade at $7,100 levels. Holmquist’s statement also seems to convey another opinion i.e., altcoins such as Bitcoin Cash cannot serve as an investment asset and should be primarily used as a mode of payment.
That implies that Bitcoin Cash, in particular, does not carry features of Bitcoin, which makes them identical to ‘easy’ money.
Holmquist still believes that it is necessary for a platform to support Bitcoin. He said “The ability to transact with bitcoin is at most a needed function, at worst a tack on benefit. With both my career and my personal views I’ve drifted away from using bitcoin as a new payment rail.”
Finally, he believes that the Bitcoin Black Friday event is no longer relevant. Holmquist said “I think the initial mission this site had is very much accomplished.”
Nevertheless, several firms accepting Bitcoin as payment are conducting events similar to Black Friday. Binance, for example, offers trading discounts, while Ledger offers up to 30% discount on its hardware wallet.