Lately I have been looking at this whole bitcoin thing and came across an interesting discovery. Something we can call the great bitcoin secret. Or a sort of Columbus' egg - a discovery that seems simple or easy after the fact. So what I have discovered is that bitcoin system is not actually a payment system. Instead, it is a messaging system, similar to SMS, Viber, WhatsApp or Email. That's because bitcoin system, the same as the mentioned ones, just transfers data without transferring ownership rights on some type of property. The latter kind of transferring is of course what payment systems are doing. From that discovery it follows that bitcoin itself is not money, but a message. It is a message in the form of a number, received via bitcoin messaging system. Finally, the discovery also tells us that the so called bitcoin wallet is not actually a wallet. Instead, it is a simple messaging application used for sending, recieving and reading numeric messages. So essentially, bitcoin is like when a girlfriend sends you an SMS message: "Thanks for a beautiful gift". In that way, she transferred data (letters) to you via SMS messaging system and you can read that data. But you didn't get the ownership rights on some type of property. Exactly the same thing happens in bitcoin system. The senders are just transferring data (numbers) via bitcoin messaging system, without the receivers getting the ownership rights on some type of property. The receivers are just able to read the received numbers or send them to someone else. And that's basically it. That's what messaging system are doing. Payment systems, besides data, transfer also the ownership rights. Messaging systems, in general, transfer only data. Sometimes, they can transfer ownership rights, for example when a purchased software licences, pictures or sounds are recieved via Email. But bitcoin system transfers only data. It is a primitive messaging system, even more primitive than SMS, given it just transfers numbers.

That essentially means that there's no buying going on in the bitcoin system. No investing. We don't buy or invest in numbers. This would be as nonsensical as saying that we bought or invested in SMS message when we received one. Receiving a dozen of letters or numbers is not investing or buying, because alfanumeric symbols are not copyrighted. We use them for free whenever we need them. If we need numbers for performing mathematical calculations or labeling and quantifying things, we just produce them out of thin air and represent with symbols (0-9). We don't need to buy numbers. We don't need someone to protect them in a distributed database. Numbers are stored in our minds, and they don't need protection like gold, diamonds or cars do.

Therefore, everything that is going on in the bitcoin system is that you receive a numeric message through a simple messaging system after you gave your ownership of property for free to someone. We can metaphorically say that via the bitcoin system those that got the property from you are saying: "thanks for the gift". If your gift is bigger, you receive bigger number of "thanks" - a message with a bigger number. If your gift is smaller, you receive smaller number of "thanks" - a message with a smaller number.

So, that what Satoshi invented is nothing revolutionary. Messaging systems are with us for a long time. As far as his distributed database is concerned. This is just storing data via mega expensive cryptographic method. In some occasions this can be useful, but this doesn't make the stored data worth a fortune. Especially if the data carries no meaningful information to the receiver, but contains mere numbers, like in the case bitcoin. Then, the data is worthless, while the distributed database is just a huge waste of energy.

Here's a more detailed explanation of the discovery: https://youtu.be/AUvPzegOuZA