Bitcoin Forum

If bitcoin's purpose is to serve as an alternative currency for fiat, then why do bitcoin users still use the term "selling bitcoins to fiat" rather than "trading bitcoins to fiat"? This is the common thing that I see bitcoin users commit every now and then. They tend to value bitcoin like an investment vehicle rather than use it as a payment option replacing fiat.

Not everyone come from the same background where words usually have slight different meaning based on experience/background/culture.

Selling and buying are defined in terms of money. When you sell something, you receve money, and when you buy something, you part with your money. There is a direction of the trade, that can be described either as a sell or a buy. When you trade some money for some other money, the distinction falls apart. What you can do, is to look at selling (or buying) as two transfers going on at the same time. Like in barter, when you exchange apples for shoes, you at the same time sells the apples for shoes and buys the shoes for apples.

When you make a bitcoin exchange, you sell bitcoins for dollars and at the same time buys dollars for bitcoins. There is no direction of importance in the trade. It is a buy and a sell at the same time.

So many words...

Many people use the term "trades" in terms of the transactions when fiat is exchanged for bitcoin.

If bitcoin is to serve as a currency, the correct term would be "convert bitcoins to fiat", not trade to fiat. It would be a currency conversion.

I don't know, Ive heard of people "selling" USD and "selling" BTC, especially when the gox fiasco was going on. People tend to say 'sell' when they want the reader to picture people running in circles screaming, 'buy' when they want you to picture people running to counters with piles of money, and 'exchange' for most other situations. Note that other situations are pretty rare, as most people consider their reader picturing these crazy things to be a major source of motivation to post on this forum.

well, there could be something lost in translation, bitcoin being an international currency/asset and all. i tend to see it as trading, but that's because i trade back and forth on the exchanges. :)

Bitcoin can be a way of storage and of wealth transfer more than an alternative to fiat. There are people that want bitcoin to replace fiat, but not all.

And given the low level of acceptance of both consumers and sellers, bitcoin still is only an investment vehicle. The first sign of BTC's sucess will be people stop using sell and buy to bitcoin without realizing they are doing it.

yes, most of people think bitcoin is a speculative instruments now, they always do trading on bitcoin exchange like LakeBTC (https://www.lakebtc.com/) etc. for them, it's enough to know that doing bitcoin trading can earn money.