how does bitcoin starve the beast? The bitcoin buyer has to use fiat currency to get bitcoins or mine them. It is not like people are getting paid in bitcoins, fiat currency is still needed. Even if you buy bitcoins with fiat currency and trade those for goods and services, the miner still uses your fiat currency to fund their lively hood. How can it starve what it depends on? Just like fiat money it is only as valuable as people pretend it is. There is no actual value. Before fiat money, paper money was backed by precious metals, now its a receipt debt. So how exactly does it starve it?