Bitcoin Forum

If you ask a Bitcoin holder who only holds and trade they will tell you Bitcoin is a digital currency, an asset or a store of value. If you meet a developer or a miner you will possibly get a more deeper explanation that Bitcoin is more than just a digital currency but also a software and a network that has it's own protocol. If you meet a government analyst who is a bit bais about Bitcoin you could possibly hear something like Bitcoin is a technology that has come to increase crime due to its anonymous feature. But with the last concept no matter how biase they choose to be about Bitcoin with satoshi's white paper one can actually tell for himself what Bitcoin tends to offer.

But if I was asked what is Bitcoin I will smile and tell the next fellow Bitcoin is the liberty from centralized dictatorship and manipulation despite it's price instability it has potentials for future security compared to the local fiat....

These aren't values, but definitions and I'll have to disagree. It's an internet currency. Sure, you may use it as an investment or a store of value or even just to speculate, but the only reason it exists is to be used as a currency. If none saw it like that, it wouldn't have a purpose to be an asset.

People invest in things for their future usage. In this case, they invest so that one will use it as a currency in the future.

But I was also thinking if Bitcoin is used as a currency it can be measured in SATs where by we have 0.0000001 as the lowest and 100 million Satoshi in every Bitcoin. I still believe Bitcoin will get global adoption satoshi's white paper is too real and I smell adoption soon

Bitcoin, bitcoin, btc is many things

Bitcoin the network/protocol
bitcoin(btc) the asset currency

its like a tree of branches.

Bitcoin is (note the capital B, rather then btc or bitcoin of the same pronunciation, but mean different things)
a network of nodes.                                              
                   nodes that follow protocol rules
                                             protocol rules of a payment system
                                                                     a payment system of a currency
                                                                                                    a currency secured by PoW
                                                                                                                                     PoW provides a good store of value
                                                                                                                                                            good store of value is an asset

anything can be used as a currency. many currencies have different features some are great value stores some are bad
currencies can function for different purposes, people can offer sexual favours, or give a friend a beer for helping out. people traded gold, people even trade oil.
many things can be a currency. . bitcoin however is treated as an great value store asset class currency.
PoS coins are not good store of value because there is negligible underlying cost of creation and most of the "price" is speculative

..
gold sits in two classes. asset and commodity
a currency does not need to be "money" (regularly used and common)
bitcoins aim was suppose to lean towards becoming mainstream in the "money" class of asset currency. but it kinda broke off that branch and is now held up at the level of asset class

It was created to be an internet currency. Satoshi made it that way. But after a decade it found a different, much stronger use case. History knows lots of inventions that was ment to do something but after a while someone found better/different usecase for it. Bitcoin is one of them. Stable coins on fast chains like TRX or BSC serves much better as internet money than bitcoin. I pay/recive payment almost every day. Most deals are made via BEP-20 BUSD. But am I holding it as BEP-20 BUSD? No, because I dont trust it. Its fast and easy to deal with but not safe to store wealth for more than its needed. So I transfer value to bitcoin to store it there. Especially if price goes down and we are far from ATH.
So bitcoin is more like an internet gold rather than internet currency.

I don't think that investors buy bitcoin in 2021-2022 because they bealive its going to be used as internet money in future. They did that in 2009-2017.

The definition lies on the person you're talking or asking to. We all agree with the first description and whether you have a different career, it still falls to the idea that bitcoin these days is an asset or a store of value. But there's really a deeper meaning and description based on how someone perceives and understands bitcoin and the technology behind it. And that's where it's going to start about those technical description and understanding but not everyone understands it.

No, it hasn't. This is what I've said few posts above. Many choose to use it as an investment and/or hedge to inflation, but if there isn't one willing to exchange goods and services for it, there's no purpose at all. So, every use case comes from the fact that some people see it as money.

That is only meant to be traded. Quoting this guy:

Stablecoins can't be compared against Bitcoin, because they are centralized. They rely on a company to manage the fiat funds, the banking system, and they usually feature mechanisms for freezing accounts and transactions. Bitcoin may not be a popular currency or a practical enough currency, but it's still currency.

Yea. Stable coins are a bed solution. As I said in my post: "But am I holding it as BEP-20 BUSD? No, because I dont trust it. Its fast and easy to deal with but not safe to store wealth for more than its needed." mostly because all you said
-"centralized. They rely on a company to manage the fiat funds, the banking system, and they usually feature mechanisms for freezing accounts and transactions"

But as a transfer of value its cheaper, faster and easier to handle than bitcoin. So its a better "internet corrency", at least for now. And i'm speaking from a perspective of a guy who is constantly managing payouts. And don't get me wrong. I agree with everything you said about bitcoin. Its my biggest part of my "net worth". I put most of my profits in bitcoin, but I use stable coins as "internet currency" mostly because people i deal with want a $$ deal and they dont want me to charge them a 10-50$ transfer fee (bitcoin is super cheap last days, 0.50$ is enough but it was not like that before and people still remember this, and are afraid it will repeat, so they chose stable coins on fast and cheap chains when I ask them how they want to get payout, or how they want to pay me).

Bep20-BUSD you can use on pancake swap seconds after you get it to invest/speculate/stake while BTC you need to deposit to CEX first.

It'd be true if this did not exist: Lightning Network (https://lightning.network/).

For me, what explaining above isn't attributes but the definition of Bitcoin based on own perceptions. Sure, Bitcoin may define as varied, depending on what its functions are. Investors, developers, or governments view Bitcoin in different perceptions because they function it differently. However, we cannot blame them, they understand it as what they are experiencing. You also may get a different answer once you ask about it to random people who never know Bitcoin. They may define Bitcoin as a strange thing.  ;)

It will be false after Lightning Network (https://lightning.network/) better adoption and every exchange, merchant will accept it. So far there is not even a single exchange that do that. They are at a stage of implementing segwit right now. But still people in 2022 wants a $$ deal, not a sat deal. At least people i deal with.

All i'm saying is that in 2022 average investor dont see bitcoin as a internet currency anymore. Its more like a internet gold. It may change in 2023-2025 after USDT sudden death, or together with lightning network increased adoption. Would be nice to see that

There's actually quite a few exchanges which already support the Lightning Network. Here (https://github.com/theDavidCoen/LightningExchanges#readme)'s an up-to-date list. I have had channels to both Bitfinex and Nicehash for a couple of months now. I also tried their Lightning deposits/withdrawals and they worked flawlessly.

Ultimately it stands that Bitcoin is to be used as a currency. It being a safe asset was a natural result due to the nature of it's decentralization and limited supply. It being an investment stands on the foundation that it would be used as a currency imo, since if it isn't used for that purpose, then I don't think it could stand as an investment anymore. Though honestly that mindset would probably be changed once more countries start accepting Crypto, aka adoptions all over the place. People couldn't really use Bitcoin most of the time since stores don't generally accept them after all.

Bitcoin gives a sense of ownership and control, only those who have not make attempt to understand and practicalize it that will have such negative thoughts, btc gives people the opportunity to pull from government strings and have some form of control, there is no denying the volatility but it is more transparent than fiat currency.

I'm into the look of Bitcoin adoption for all countries but can't deny how it hards to work persistently. Might it give changes to the mindset of the people but I believe that this could never change the way they look at Bitcoin as the majority will still consider this as an investment, especially in the 3rd world countries. Honestly, what is makes Bitcoin known is because of its investment potential, not as currency and this remains the same even though adoption has been taken strong.

if i ask what is bitcoin
Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency or crypto currency as well as being the most popular. Its price continues to rise from year to year, making bitcoin a digital asset that is sought after by many people. and
Bitcoin offers the promise of lower transaction fees than traditional online payment mechanisms. Unlike central bank-issued currencies, bitcoin is operated by a decentralized authority

With Bitcoin lightning network Bitcoin become the perfect mode of payment which aid Bitcoin scalability as a currency with a limited supply which gives it the asset with an intrinsic value status, bitcoin to be a digital gold and internet money, and a global payment agent, I refer to Bitcoin as a coin with many sides and that is because of Bitcoin multiple features.

A lot of folks with their different opinions about Bitcoin but taking our bearing from Satoshi's statement Bitcoin is an internet tool for the transfer of value.

Well this is the first time I heard someone defining Bitcoin like that.
For me, it's nothing too complicated to be an asset, alternative payment method for some and a side investment as well. It's not going to be more complicated than that.
It's also just that something that you can hold without involving any authorities.

Bitcoin is a digital currency to everyone but, it's not proper to stop there when having a conversion with somebody about bitcoin since they are other characteristics or attributes of bitcoin to discuss. This is where the different perspective creeps in which then varies according to the person's profession or position in life and their other thoughts about bitcoin. However, digital currency is the primary definition.

Yes, there is a lot to Bitcoin. It’s just like when I got to know about Bitcoin newly, I firstly thought that it was just for transactions only, and that was in 2015. I never knew much about it and never knew that it can also be a really good asset to hold.

So, I just bought some bitcoins with plans that I will use them for some transactions later, I never knew how it works because the article I read only described it as a payment method. But later when I noticed how the value kept changing , I had to go further to do more research, and that was when I started to understand the true value of this currency.

What's the point of this forum thread,OP?
This is a Bitcoin forum and we as forum members are already familiar with all the qualities and features of Bitcoin.
Do you want to boost your post count by writing such (more or less) pointless forum posts?
I got tired of all the "Bitcoin is this..." and "Bitcoin is that..." "Bitcoin is awesome" or "Bitcoin is precious"
forum posts,that are adding absolutely nothing to the discussions on the forum.We know that Bitcoin Core/blockchain technology is awesome.There's no need to praise Bitcoin for it's awesomeness every day.

I tend to agree. Bitcoin's only value proposition that really matters is that it is decentralized digital money that no one can stop or censor. Other use cases of bitcoin, and also different philosophical, economic, political standpoints about what bitcoin is or isn't are merely derivatives from the main use case, which is when bitcoin is playing a role of a medium of exchange to frictionlessly acquire goods and services. Moreover, being a medium of exchange is a primary function of money in general and of bitcoin in particular. The existence or absence of other functions such as store of value or unit of measurement fully depends on how well a certain type of money performs its main function. If bitcoin cannot be exchanged in the first place, if its first function is not present (censorship, no confidence in bitcoin, no liquidity, no market), no one will be willing to store their wealth in it, no one will be willing to trade or invest in it.

Errmm, you’re kind of just prolonging it. The main thing is that Bitcoin is a decentralized payment method, it’s basically all about transaction and nothing more. The good thing about it is the fact that it brought decentralization. Having decentralization gave freedom to its users.

By making use of Bitcoin people are able to have the complete control over their asset, the government cannot do anything to money stored in Bitcoin, it’s out of their control and can’t be frozen like they would do fiat stored in a bank account. One thing that I think makes Bitcoin quite special in the cryptocurrency space, is the fact that it is the only truly decentralized currency.

Bitcoin also makes it easier for all the transactions we do, we no longer need to go to the bank to make transactions, everything is so easy with bitcoin, we just open our laptops, we can directly carry out transactions without any third party intermediaries, even though bitcoin prices are currently low dropped because of the dispute between Russia and Ukraine, but bitcoin holders will continue to grow from year to year.

Bitcoin is decentralized currency,  people use to reduce poor economy or unemployment in the country. To those countries that made bitcoin legalized are really enjoying the attribute or  benefits of decentralized currency in the community,  that is attracting other countries to make it legalized in their country so that their citizens will have full access to bitcoin in their country.
One of the attribute is to buy when the price of bitcoin is low, and hold to watch the price to increase higher before you can sell to make a good profit.

I would mostly agree with these sentiments. I think for those whom are pro bitcoin there’s a lot of different positive attributes, namely all of the things you listed and there’s nothing wrong with stating that all of them are real aspects of bitcoin. There is no one sound definition that defines bitcoin.

the bitcoin lightning network is still not widely used so transactions are still running for quite a while compared to other digital transactions. Bitcoin also has a lot of support and of course the pros and cons of using bitcoin will remain. Bitcoin is not centralized so it cannot be controlled by anyone. although bitcoin has high volatility with volatile price characters, bitcoin is able to develop well to date.

Bitcoin I different things to different people. Even when you see the whitepaper, the whitpaper don't even have somethings Bitcoin has developed to and will develop to in the future.
Satoshi himself underestimated the potentials of bitcoin. No one thought it will be like this. So bitcoin is dynamics.
I will appreciate if you can view my avatar text and see if it's same with your definition.

Bitcoin has characteristics of divisibility, fungibility, scarecity and money and it is based on mathematics properties.

Same when I was new. That is normal because that is the basic definition of btc. The year 2014 was still an early time for btc and most article writer also also a newbie like us, which why the info they supply is not enough but later on during the 2017 hype, this was the time btc became very well known and people are researching more about btc and find out that btc is more than just a currency but it can do very well on other use cases.

Right now, all the newbies think that btc is more of an asset where they can make money if they invest and not as currency. There is nothing wrong with this, they can choose if which side of btc they like.

That last one is the most important thing. Everything else is just reinventing something that was not thought of when BTC started. It's a disruptive technology, and that should be enough. People that do not believe in it being a disruptive technology, and who need more explanation to surround it, will need to invent more uses for it. And they do so without giving the initial idea of BTC a second thought. And we are seeing that do not just with BTC but also with other crypto projects, NFTs...basically throwing anything at it and seeing what sticks.