[ncallaway]

Sure!

The original Bitcoin whitepaper from Satoshi Nakamoto is available here: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

It is titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System"

So, based just on the title, it's pretty clear that it's original intent was as an electronic payment method.

The first sentence of the abstract is: "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"

If you read the rest of the whitepaper it's pretty clear that the original intent was as a mechanism to facilitate payments and transactions.

[overtmind]

That's BSV, maybe. Bitcoin core deviated from the original white paper long long ago

[ncallaway]

Are you arguing that the original Bitcoin whitepaper is invalid as a source of whether Bitcoin is "desired" as a payment method?

Clearly, at least one person (the author of the whitepaper!) "desired" Bitcoin as a payment method. They desired it so much, that they went off an invented it!

If that doesn't count as a source indicating what someone "desires" then nothing does.