Bitcoin Forum

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/bitcoin-is-no-longer-a-currency/274859/ (https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/bitcoin-is-no-longer-a-currency/274859/)

An article from The Atlantic magazine - from 2013, way back in 2013 - declaring that bitcoin is not a currency, but "the ultimate tech stock"!

The four years since the article was written has proven that bitcoin is akin to an Amazon or Facebook (stock, not company), and much less "Pets.com". That's a good thing.

I have to agree with them. Every week that passes without a new company in any local metropolitan area deciding to accept bitcoin as currency is a two weeks further away from bitcoin actually being adopted, mainstream, as a currency.

Bitcoin is an investment. A stock or an asset class/commodity can be debated, although it doesn't much matter. Bitcoin is a store of value not a medium of exchange.

What do you think?

Yeah, i was realizing if the bitcoin it looks like the company's share. Although bitcoin it's like the massive currency but i like to hold them because it's like i holding the company's share. the value is always increase based on his adoption and demand.

As of now since we have limited users (as compared to that of fiat), the potential of a bitcoin is extraordinary and hence people (who are coming across bitcoin niche) are giving priority to accumulate it as they believe that the price would rise over the period of time. This is making it the instrument to store the value, whereas there are some people having involved in international trading are using bitcoin as a medium of exchange because it is cheaper and faster than other options. Thus, in my opinion, the intention differs from person to person.

I agree with the matter, unfortunately. At the moment, people use Bitcoin for profit, at the moment it is not used as currency, but nothing prevents it from being used in the future. Remembering that we are still well at the beginning of the revolution, it is not possible to change everything from day to night, if it is not Bitcoin, another crypto will play this role.

I think this is a truth that bitcoin is not a currency , because the name of the bitcoin to bitcoin digital currency is made by the users of bitcoin .
The reality behind the  bitcoin is , it is just a written data , and it is about impossible to erase without the permission of the owner of bitcoin network .
And here all the bitcoiners have the trust with bitcoin that bitcoin can be use as payment and has value and has limit like the fiat money .
Allover this is just the trust system between the bitcoin to each other for bitcoin value .

I say this constantly.  Bitcoin is a good store of currency and a good--but extremely risky--investment.  But because of its volatility, it makes a lousy currency.  I hate spending it.  You can get anything with cash, but only a very limited selection of things with bitcoin, and I see no advantage with spending bitcoin.  None.  It makes absolutely no sense to me!

Yes , You are right and also I am satisfied with the OP question  that bitcoin is not a currency.
In my opinion it is only a platform.of exchange money and doing some online buisiness to make money earning without tax or coming under any law of any government .
So this is just like away of payment that is possess expensive value between the bitcoiners .
Everyone has trust with bitcoin and its network to male profit only , So this is just like a way of money earning system and nothing .

Bitcoin has the same feature of the shares, but the truth is that only the circulation of bitcoin in high and low volumes make the price up and down. If its not used as a currency the circulation could have decreased. Its better to hold it as a share, commodity, but using it as a currency popularize the digital network.

Wrong assumption, bitcoin is THE electronic/digital/mathematically engineered software to be THE decentralized currency of people.
Satoshi literally showed a big middle finger to banks around the world by launching bitcoin in open source community.
Truly bitcoin is nothing less than a miracle, show me where in the world you can transfer millions of dollars under 30 minutes time period and all by depending on an unknown third party? you get that right, miners are the random and unknown third parties where by providing you the security of your funds they are making sure to earn money out of the thin air.
Can you travel with more than a few grands or authorities will take your money if you try to do so? but with bitcoin you can travel with millions of dollars just by having your smart phone or laptop with you.

Bitcoin was never a currency, most of people use bitcoin as an alternate and anonymous payment method without higher transaction fees while others used bitcoin as an investment.A currency is backed by bank or solid collateral but with bitcoin there is nothing like this.

Agreed. You cannot have bitcoin as currency where in a few days
or even hours your money will be nothing and worthless because
of volatility. How can you do business with that kind of situation?
For bitcoin to become a medium of exchange, it needs to be stable.

Are bitcoin getting to being stable? Are we there? Well I hope so,
But I believe that if bitcoin could/should establish as a commodity,
the price needs to rise in a steadily manner over time.
 
 

Centuries ago, people hammered rocks into circles with holes in them.

http://i64.tinypic.com/25k643c.jpg

Like bitcoin's energy intensive cryptographic functions, these rocks were energy intensive to produce using primitive hand tools.

Why did people do this you ask? These circular rocks with holes in them were a form of currency.

If a donut rock can be currency, based on the idea that their energy intensiveness to produce can control inflation and prohibit counterfeiting.

I'm not certain bitcoin cannot also be a form of currency for similar reasons.

at least for me, i am agree that bitcoin is a crypto currency that is used in internet only, so far, but i am sure, if there is many country learn about bitcoin, they will know that bitcoin have many benefit that they can used and integrated with their system or maybe they can make their coins.

Some of these rocks was found at the bottom of the ocean, when they transported it between islands. So they stopped transporting it, and left it on islands where it was created and people apparently bought shares in these rocks and ledgers were held, on who owned what share in those stones. < very interesting > 

Bitcoin must be one of the coolest currencies that have ever existed, because it has multi-function features. < It is a commodity, store of value, currency, used for smart contracts and the list goes on. >

you write link article, in year 2013 this now 2017 after 4 year bitcoin still survive,volume transaction every day over 100 million dollar
and bitcoin user incraese big too, so not relevant again because bitcoin now the bigest curency online

Yes, the bitcoin is more like a good investment products, it is different from the normal currency.Bitcoin can be used to buy things,in that sense, it’s like conventional dollars, euros, or yen, which are also traded digitally.However, bitcoin’s most important characteristic, and the thing that makes it different to conventional money, is that it is decentralized, no single institution controls the bitcoin network,bitcoin price volatility is uncertain.

Your argument is slightly true but the issue of acceptance every week is not a determining factor that it is no longer a currency because it can happen that in a week several businesses might just adopt the currency without recourse to happen or how many adopts the previous week. Also, all over the world bitcoin is being known by at least one more person but not all are reported. And the massive inflow of acceptance will happen when government gives the go ahead and companies can come out to say, we accept this...

by the time that article was written (2013) price was going up like crazy and it was all a hype, and also investors (aka speculators) only trading bitcoin and not caring about much else other than how much fiat they are going to get out of their trades. and back then there so little places accepting bitcoin as payment.

but today (although things are somewhat similar) there are lots of places that you can actually spend bitcoin as currency. some huge corporations such as Valve, Microsoft, Dell,... are now accepting bitcoin and it is only a matter of time before we see it in larger places such as Amazon and eBay.

I am afraid you were right, take a look to how much unconfirmed transaction so far?
There is really a lot of transaction stucked, imagine how many business/merchant leaving day by day because of this problem
I am sure people nowadays feel insecure when have to use a currency that worth $1,000
Then they feel more comfortable use bitcoin as investment.

Just realize this matter after reading your post, that is a really good point. Bitcoin really is usually used in trading, also used in saving and exchanging it to real money. They are not that usable on transactions that use bitcoin as a currency or payment, yes it might be used sometimes but not all the time.

Bitcoin was developed to counter the digital insecure method,it is itself is extraordinary concept from how a mathematics can be turned into a digital payment core.
Now days bitcoin is used less for effective purpose but more for illegal transaction.yup it's anonymous nature have given people to invest/hide their money so it also became an asset.

Bitcoin is both a currency and a commodity. It is a commodity since its value is dictated by the market and backed-up by the fiat currency. But at the same time it is a currency since it is a medium of exchange for cryptocurrency and at the same time you can purchase items on the social media merchants in exchange for bitcoin. There is no official definition of bitcoin but since we cannot deny its nature we should stick to this definition is both a commodity and a currency.

i don't agree with your definition of currency, a currency is something that can be exchange for goods and it doesn't matter if is backed by your government or not, the point of bitcoin is to have a currency without third party that can be used to purchase anything like dollars or euro

I just wanna know, if bitcoin is not a currency, and your saying its an alternate and anonymous payment. Isn't the usual things most happened the real currency we used was our country money is being used too in any mode of payment. I don't see any differences between the bitcoin and a real currency. As far as I know they are both useful in anonymous payment.

I agree with you but we can still use bitcoins as a currency or maybe in brief I should say that bitcoins are a very common asset and hence everyone gladly accepts it and hence giving it a tag of a currency.

For example, suddenly there is some virtual gold online and it is started to trade everywhere online then it is not a currency yet it is a currency.

Alternate currency, it's the right name for bitcoin at this time but it will grow become the main currency(digital). I can't call it a currency because based on bitcoin is not have a physical form. But every time the definition of the currency always changes.

This should be expected

I remember that I also created a thread a few years ago where I claimed that if something is a good medium of exchange (payment) it won't be very good overall as a store of value (and vice versa). My main premise is that in order to be a good means of exchange currency should necessarily be inflationary, i.e. lose purchasing power over years (in certain limits, of course). Bitcoin is deflationary (given its supply being halved every 4 years), so that's what we should expect

Well, I do not feel that bitcoin is not a currency, in fact, I feel at this time, bitcoin has become an international currency on the Internet, although not all admit it. so many people are doing transactions with bitcoin from around the world, and unconfirmation of the transaction to be proof.

More and more companies may be accepting bitcoin and joining other companies in growing numbers of people that do, but if you go ahead and ask random on the street if they know what bitcoin is they'll probably end up saying it's the drug currency with silk road or they just won't know anything about it. Bitcoins is one of the niche items which I've stated many times before, it's something that is going to need to go down in volatility before people consider it a safe investment.

I wouldn't say bitcoin is an investment at this point, it's an niche community with tons of followers.

I agree with what you write, although it could be used as a medium of exchange but bitcoin is more suitable if used for investment or store of value. Its value is very volatile so it is not suitable when used as a medium of exchange, and it would be profitable if used as an investment. Perhaps it needs to be studied again if bitcoin want to use as a medium of exchange so is not a problem in the future if it is used.

It's not like companies share its totally a digital currency where companies use it for investments and other things that can be done with bitcoins paypal is a company this is different , Bitcoin has its own price its depends on you if you are going to hold it or you're going to sold it by your self.

Ultimate tech stock seems very good to hear on my ears but all of bitcoin users are treating it as a digital currency even though its adoption isnt on its fullest but still we are going on that way. Bitcoin does really have a good potential that it would be supported for longer years.

That is all true but Bitcoin is beeing used as a currency you can't say that it's not the currency. What are the real arguments for that? It's used as a payment method for goods and services too. Some countries have regulated Bitcoin as currency. Some still have some doubts whether Bitcoin is money, property or something else but by definition Bitcoin stays virtual currency. To my opinion.

Well first off, bitcoins are not currency in the first place. So we can't really argue that "it is no longer a currency" since it never was one. Bitcoins are online commodity as it is not backed up by any government or any valuable thing like gold. That is what a currency is, since bitcoins don't have those then it is not a currency.

Except that it was designed as a currency and is being used as a currency more than ever.

Money is what money does

The fact that something can be used as money doesn't mean in and of itself that it is money. This is a matter of difference in degree, rather than in kind. And even if Bitcoin was created for being used primarily as a currency (while being a payment system at that) but it is, for the most, being actually used as a financial asset today (read a vehicle for speculation), we can't consider it as money in its own right

Yeah I also think bitcoin is no longger currency but seems I was wrong about it and about that's article I dont think we must believe it due what all in article like only a troll.

Nothing new in it. Bitcoin was never a recognized currency. It was just a fictitious concept!
It is all good to recognize Bitcoin as investment. Why? Because holding Bitcoin will be treated as investment and will go in 'Investing Activites' instead of 'Financing Activities'. This means less regulations, no tax and no control by center powers (Government or central bank). So the real mean of Bitcoin as Decentralized Item will continue..
Last year, a case came from US where convict was saved since court declared Bitcoin as Investment instead of Currency.

It depends on how you look at it. The writer of the article sees bitcoin as a pump&dump tech stock because he probably never needed bitcoin in his daily life to purchase something.

As for people who make many purchases via bitcoin, its definitely a currency.

As for people like me, it's a commodity like gold or a house. Because like most of the gold buyers, i buy and hold my bitcoins. I trade only a little.

Bitcoin is not really a currency I believe, though it is being used for transaction. It is more of a commodity or investment by which one can earn potentially high profits, but one can use it to transact as well. But as the value is so volatile, its not fully suitable for general transaction done by any recognised currency.

A currency in the most specific use of the word refers to money in any form. and money is the accepted form to buy something. let's see bitcoin nowadays. people can buy things with bitcoin like t-shirt, jewelry, phone, and other goods. so according to the definition, bitcoin is still currency.

Currency as defined in merriam webster "circulation as a medium of exchange." Using black's law, it is defined as "Coined money and such bank-notes or other paper money as are authorized by law and do in fact circulate from hand to hand as the medium of exchange." Well there is no law yet that authorized bitcoin as a medium of exchange yet. But, bitcoin does pass from hand to hand and is a medium of exchange.

In a core bitcoin is a digital Currency. However people have made it in to the commodity n investment asset. For me in current form one of power of bitcoin is quick transfer of currency from one end of world to other end of world. Honestly it is so fast given current load on blockchain is high.
This ease and fast transfer makes them ideal for transfer across continents. It would have been really nice if it was less volatile resulting high adoption rate. This would have helped it in becoming as global currency than an asset to keep for long.

Don't you think power of bitcoin is as currency and not as asset?   

No I think bitcoins are still a currency as they are accepted by a number of sites and everything seems to be working like a currency for example we have a wallet for them.

We have market for bitcoins shopping and we are exploring day by day and it is not true to say that it's not a currency though I agree that the structure of bitcoins was not made for it being used as a currency.

The thing is, do currencies by definition have to be stable? If yes, then bitcoin is not a currency, but if the definition of currency does not include the stability of the price, the bitcoin can be a currency.

But I agree, bitcoin is rather ending up a better gold/internet asset somehow.

The requirement to be authorized by the law refers mainly to legal tender (i.e. something with which you can (https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/Currency/Pages/legal-tender.aspx) pay "all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues"), not so much to the concept of money itself. If you ask me, if something is to be considered money it should be used as a means of payment (or exchange, which is basically the same) by a relatively large group of people not closely affiliated with each other. In this manner, Bitcoin can be considered as money too

At least, as long as it is used in this role

http://s41.radikal.ru/i091/1701/29/aef1268b79e3.gif

That is, as a currency, not as a financial asset

Indeed though it might be said recently but I was quite sure about this since a long time actually. Because you see bitcoins parts or say shares are limited and hence we buy those parts, wait for the shares to go up and then sell them, don't we all do this ?

Now being bitcoins accepted on many sites it seems like BTC is a currency but it's just because of bitpay that sites accept this asset :)

Bitcoin is a currencie as well payment processor, something unique backing some years of crypto world, it can be considered as digital gold, the only thing that bitcoin hasnt is support from the countries, neither they dont wanna to legalize it because they know they need to handle it with care to avoid loose the control over bitcoin.

Bitcoin is a currency,  the one stated on the link document is a person's perspective on how he view bitcoin.  He is right on his point but wrong in mine and vice versa.  It will be bring am argument but let us just dwell on the definition and feature of Bitcoin so that we can really tell what Bitcoin is according to our interpretation of the those details.

Actually some of the opinions shared by author of that article seem solid. I found especially this snippet interesting:

"Bitcoin isn't a currency. It's a commodity. A currency needs a relatively stable value to function as a medium of exchange.
If it goes up too much, everyone will hoard it. If it goes down too much, nobody will want it."

It is hard to argue with this line of reasoning. What would you say to defend bitcoin's position as a currency against it?

Depending on the viewpoint of each person, they can consider bitcoin as anything (like you had mentioned) but the founder stated bitcoin as a Electronic Cash System in the first place (if I'm right). I assume bitcoin as a digital currency too.
However, some people can't spend bitcoin as a medium of exchange but others actually threat bitcoin as a currency, as a medium of exchange to spend it in daily basis, buy anything that you need. Ask them who lives in Netherlands : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1787488.0

It is a characteristic which was included by Satoshi just to attract more people to adopt it (otherwise he would not have limited the supply and there is no need of any halving too ).

Literally every fiat is a commodity, its buying power vary over time. Bitcoin will get stable price after centuries till then it may act as investment instrument after that it will become a pure currency.

The problem is that if we start using bitcoins as a currency then it is fine but actually no one will hold bitcoins and the price will become very definitive as currency cannot be expected to change with time.

And if this is done then the millions of people who make profit by selling and buying bitcoins at different phases will be denied their profits. Plus why we need another currency ? Maybe let bitcoins a " type of digital currency " as also stated by google ;)

True that and bitcoins are not a currency because currency is something that can be printed or generated more and more depending on the requirement while bitcoins have a fixed amount stated in the beginning and guys have to mine it. It's much more like gold that is still to be mined and the more we save it the more we profit.

Just a more volatile sort of gold that gives earning opportunity because of it's nature of high fluctuations.

You are not really right. This is true that a increasing proportion of people use it as a reserve currency, but as we can see with the flooded blocks, there is still much people using it as a payment commodity.

actually I agree that bitcoin is not a currency, when we talk about currency there is always a party that controlled it, but most of the people used it for currency and it is acceptable for some user as an exchange tools that makes bitcoin as a currency, and I like all of us treat bitcoin as a currency because it is really efficient to used

Bitcoin is moving away from any sort of currency we used to know it as and more into something like a very divisible form of gold, or something that keeps a large portion of its wealth intact. While it would have been viable to transfer a large amount of Bitcoin for something in the past as a transaction, it's looking less and less practical to do that now.

well that is right though other bitcoin user consider it wrong, there are some countries now that accept bitcoin as a payment and it is really there. Bitcoin has a good transactions it is really reliable and fast, though there are mysterious transactions that we dont know of. And for me it is in the user on how they will treat bitcoin, they are the user so they can use their bitcoin whenever, whatever wherever they want.

Most users don't treat it as a currency and never have. Only an honourable few use it as perhaps the original intention. It may well start being used as a currency once it's reached saturation. Something has to be store of value first before the currency aspect kicks in for most.

The very nature of its design discourages a high velocity. Deflation and spending don't go together especially if people believe it's going to keep on rising. I spend it occasionally but if I have crappy fiat to hand then that's going first.

Whatever happen in the bitcoin network is already untraceable as we can hind our identify due to anonymous transaction, but since bitcoin is just a payment system and never a currency, we will have to convert our bitcoin to fiat and there, we will have to comply with the rules of the exchange sites and we will have to supply our persona information.  It's fast and cheap but that is the only thing it can give us and never will come a time that we will compete with legal currencies.

I don't consider Bitcoin as a stock. For many reasons one good reason is that BItcoin is not a company, a company that pays dividends and rights. Also to be a stock you need to be publicly listed in Bitcoin's case it had created a new kind of exchange revolving cryptocurrencies and does not revolve around stock companies. Don't mix Bitcoin as a stock.

No, we should agree on it, bitcoin is a currency, if it is not currency, So why we use to bitcoin for payment wise, and also we covert the bitcoin into fiat currency. Do you use any other thing alternative for currency?
No off course, we use only currency whenever we buy something and anything. Bitcoin is a pure currency but its name is cyrpto.

Store of value or medium of exchange, for me this are technicalities. We can describe bitcoin in many ways, but bottom line is that you can gamble with bitcoins, you can do illegal stuff with bitcoins, you can buy many things with bitcoins, so for me bitcoin is currency.
Xuan87 someone control stocks too, everything in this system is controlled by someone or something. For now we have luck that bitcoin is decentralized, and I hope it will stay like that, cause only in this form and with this organization bitcoin can be real alternative for fiat currencies.

certainly bitcoin is not stocks, bitcoin is cryptocurrency that have prices up and down, so it can be used for investment. but bitcoin I think it could also be referred to as a currency, because you can buy something with bitcoin

For me it is clear that bitcoin is a currency,
It is a cryptography currency and it is created for the anonymity of all of it's user and to decentralize.

I think its because bitcoin's use is not specifically for investment purposes so we can't compare it to stocks. As you've said, we can use bitcoin to purchase and do online transactions and i think that is btc's main purpose. The fact that the price goes up and down makes it also good as an investment itself and i think thats the reason ehy some people compare it to stocks

With a thought such as you have said it could make gold as a currency too right?
Gold have been used to trade, used as a payment and could be converted to fiat too.
Things make people consider bitcoin as not a currency anymore is because the price/value that way too high.

How does the bitcoin is not consider or no longer a kind of currency because that is very wrong. Bitcoin is a virtual money or known as crypto'currency' so it means that bitcoin is still a kind of currency and in terms of currency, you can use it to buy other things or that kind of thing has a value which bitcoin have. So it is wrong if we say that the bitcoin is no longer a currency

Bitcoin can be a lot of things but at its core bitcoin is money, since it has all the good things you will want out of money, its durable, fungible, it's a unit of account, and the most important it is a store of value unlike all the currencies of the world except gold and silver, that is why sometimes people think of it as a stock or commodity but it is not, bitcoin is money.

So tell me why almost every bitcoin owner hold the coins?

The best and the most common practice is hoarding bitcoins and waiting for the price to grow. Do you think this is what a currency is made for?
For keeping it safe, and never use it? BTC users are AFRAID to buy goods/services because BTC most likely will be worth more in the future due to deflationary nature of bitcoin.

Yes bitcoin suits for many applications then why not we can use bitcoin as a currency. I'm not ready to accept bitcoin for an investment purposes only.

Probably right now bitcoin is being used ONLY as an investment vehicle but it does not mean it will stay the same for ever. Once bitcoin prices are getting stable, people will start using it similar to fiats. But I guess it will take more time than our life times.

While I agree that it may be not a very good idea overall to spend your precious bitcoins on trivial things, but there are plenty of other people who might be just happy to spend their bitcoins buying stuff online. So this is not the main reason why many folks are keeping their bitcoins. It seems that the primary reason is the lack of enough number of merchants ready to accept Bitcoin. Look, Bitcoin gambling is one of the two most widespread uses of Bitcoin (the other being trading), and many people are willing to exchange their coins for the fun of gambling. In this way, there is no reason to think that savers wouldn't turn into spenders...

If they could actually spend the coins

I am one of those that enjoy using Bitcoin buying stuff online.  So I can say I agree that many holders thinks that bitcoin is a store of value, I enjoy the things that bitcoin offers as currency.

The currency does not have such a large market yet, but I think as long as Bitcoin continues to be used for people to make payments on the internet, Bitcoin will remain a currency.

I think bitcoin as all of those you have mentioned, not only as a digital currency, tech stock, commodity, as an investment, as savings because the value of bitcoin. Yes, bitcoin is a store of value but it is a medium of exchange too which we can buy/sell to purchase goods/bitcoin, that's what we do for years, bitcoin as an alternative payment but in some regions it has good opportunity to spend bitcoin easier than fiat money. Depend on every user opinion to consider bitcoin as they want, bitcoin remain as a better financial technology.

Bitcoin isn't a currency, but there is no easy way to define it. It can be called a cryptocurrency, but that could also make people think it is a currency.  Really it is several things including: 1) a store of value, 2) an investment, 3) a method of transferring money electronically, 4) a method of making purchases. I'm sure there are other features as well.

A single coin has several usability directly which is not possible with the national currencies. Bitcoin initially is a store of value. Later got transformed to a technology development. Once again with its potential got the features of a currency without physical touch. Now people are using I similar to dollar and euro for their needs. So it can be considered as a currency. In a most popular news portal page of Germany Bitcoin is listed under the major currencies section. These too confirm it as a currency.

Yes bitcoin is no longer a currency because it more like a business that has a peak season and an off-peak season of its price, which is the profit earned by most of the users who do investment of digital crypto currencies. As mostly others were saying it’s a storage digital value of money used as a medium of exchange that can buy, sell or purchase goods and even bitcoin is purchased using fiat money that sellers also earned profit through peer to peer trading. Eventually we are now facing the strongest pillars of digital currency, and will continue to have better future as it remain sustainable financial source of people who wanted progress in life.

Bitcoin is whatever you want it to be. If you want to use it as currency, then it is a currency, if you want to use it as an investment, then it's exactly that, etc. That's why I find it weird that you say Bitcoin is this and that, but totally discard its usability as currency tool. ::) It's perhaps not the most convenient way when it comes to using it as currency in local situations due to the steep fees and confirmation times, but it serves pretty well in online circumstances.




 ::)

I too really worry that we just gave up on trying to make bitcoin as international currency that can be used in shops and like any other payment method on the internet long time ago and we just accepted the fact that it is an investment also, because of this reason its price is still unstable and people do not trust using it in their business as a currency.

But the positive note to consider, the investment characteristics of bitcoin may short live after that it may move into currency mode automatically.

The article is not technically incorrect and we can certainly say bitcoin as a tech stock which gives us a very good investment opportunity even in the global economic slowdown. Bitcoin is first of its kind currency which can be generated from a computer program. So bitcoin doesn't have any inherited value. The value it has, it is based on public trust only.

Since people are investing heavily in bitcoin, it is getting so much attention and the market cap is increasing like rocket keeping the price also higher than any other currency. So I personally prefer to invest in bitcoin than to spend it for silly reasons. So it can be taken as an investment instead of currency.

Too risky of an investment to be named the ultimate tech stock or whatever those reporters tried to sell along the line about bitcoin. Bitcoin is and will remain a currency for this community and some smart business out of this community that would like to capitalize on a growing market.

Though, I guess more and more people are going to be just buying and selling bitcoin on a daily basis to see if they're able to make money with it. It's tough for us in the community to thing of abusing bitcoin like that, but that's what is going to happen and we have to accept it I suppose.


Yeah, only some people in this community FULLY use bitcoin as a currency but most are just holding it which would steer towards more of an investment,.

yeah bitcoin market has not been too big for the currency issue. for investment can be said bitcoin market is fairly large. need to take a long time for the bitcoin currency could spread.

no doubt that bitcoin is good for investment, and trading and specially for trading alt coin from where we can make good profit. actually the number of bitcoin users are still very low and therefore it is not using as currency in most of the areas. but as time pass people are welling to use it as currency.

Have you ever heard of Gresham’s law? The Gresham’s law states that bad money drives out good money, what this means is that people prefer to keep good money and to spend bad money, that takes good money out of circulation, since bitcoin is money that can reevaluate itself against other currencies is natural that people prefer to keep bitcoin(good money) and spend fiat(bad money).

Guys can we all agree that Bitcoin as a money can be anything. Obviously it is not some sort of stock of a company. But people also Hold Fiat currency in Foreign Exchange accounts because they know even Fiat currency trading is profitable. Bitcoin as a trading tool knows that its volatility is worth a fortune for big traders. It is not about bad or good money it is in the eye of the holder in which it is worth. It can be used in transactions or it can be use as a tool to generate more money.

I almost exclusively use bitcoins as a store of value so I definitely treat it more like a stock. There are a ton of people that don't on this forum though. It's the same with fiat, some people are savers and some are spenders.

What people right now doing will not impact the applications of bitcoin permanently. We can use bitcoin as an investment vehicle as of now, but when we find stable prices and we need making use of what we are saving for years, bitcoin will automatically switch into currency mode.

Bitcoin is a currency. But now it serves multiple purposes.

Bitcoin is no longer a currency but for me its kind of business that most of the users earned profit from the investment of digital crypto currencies. We now have the strongest foundation of digital currency, and will continue to soar higher in time.

What people comes to your mind to say that bitcoin is no longer a currency? Then why we are calling it as a crypto currency if that is not a currency anymore?

It's use as an investment is popular and we know that it's potential is always there the value of it will keep on moving.

Really? you can't find any difference between bitcoin and fiat money that which you call it as real currency? Any fiat needs third party entities(banks) but bitcoin not. Is it the same? On the other side bitcoin is anonymous? Bitcoin is only 'pseudonymous'  (http://bitcoinsimplified.org/learn-more/anonymity/).

If you consider Bitcoin is a business or investment.But for me I consider Bitcoin is a alternative currency/cryptocurrency that we can use like the real cash.

It will take along time before bitcoin can be a mainstream currencies as fiat has dominated human mind for time immemorial. Bitcoin as a store of value is good but as a medium of exchange it might not be for now but in future it has hope. Bitcoin could have been legalized in most countries of the world now if people see it as stock, digital Gold or oil but it is a crypto currencies.

Many people also investing into dollar or some kind of currency and waiting its price to increase and then sell it when the time comes. Does it make the fiat I've mentioned no longer a currency? I guess not.
In my opinion that as long as the currency still hold its primary features to be used for transaction and as a trading tool it's still a currency.

I do think these corrupted politicians will allow bitcoin to become a centralized currency. If bitcoin become treasury wallet for a government then every thing in a open ledger. No one will allow this to happen from politicians side.

With that only article we cannot say that bitcoin now is no more a currency but we have to look at the use of bitcoin as it is used on a large number of companies and a large amount of people are using bitcoin as a currency and no one is facing any hurdle for the use of bitcoin as a currency.

Its long since its no longer a merchant desirable currency as its volatile, and its less desirable customer currency because of price increase most of the time. But the community is strong so its overcome those obstacles quite ok in my opinion. Community and its devotion make it all possible no matter the odds against bitcoin from a financial stand point of view.

Volatility has never been a problem for merchants. They were always exchanging bitcoin to FIAT on the fly anyway to mitigate that.
The problem is that lack of incentive to actually use Bitcoin as a currency. It is far better to hoard it.
I have no desire to use or spend my BTC today when there is a possibility that price will skyrocket in March because ETF might be approved.

There is no problem with that

If you have plenty of bitcoins and receive your payments in them (whatever their source might be) it may be quite justifiable that you spend them directly since otherwise you would have to first convert your bitcoins to fiat and then spend fiat, thereby losing on fees and commissions. On the other hand, if you use your Bitcoin stash as investment capital for generating earnings, spending them may eat away your capital

in fact bitcoin is a currency and as soon as the number of bitcoin users are increasing bitcoin is becoming more and more popular and is giving opportunities to people to use bitcoin as currency. i think future bitcoin can be used as currency even in local shops just like fiat currency.

I'm afraid this is impossible to do

Whenever there is a currency conversion involved there is always a risk associated with the abrupt change in the currency rates. This is true even in the case of fiat currencies, and still more so with Bitcoin where its price can collapse a few percentages within minutes if not seconds. I personally know a case when the buyer bought a telly at the price on the price tag (in local currency) and the seller at first refused to sell it since the exchange rate changed dramatically but in the end he was forced to sell at the price on the tag (when the buyer filed a complaint)

Good for you, but it is not the same as with fiat, since central banks can print their national currency that means there is inflation so every single second your saved fiat losses some of its value, this is the opposite that happens with bitcoin, because bitcoin is a deflationary currency which earns a small value every second.

Bitcoin still is a currency, when you can bought something with it, it still consider as currency, but most of the people see bitcoin potential is better as investment rather than currency, and now people used bitcoin as a currency and investment at the same

I am sure bitcoin would accepted by any developed country and they will make btc legal in 5 more years. We need to adoption for bitcoin to become a legal and more costlier currency soon.

My point is that if we try to explain Bitcoin to someone that has never heard of it and we just say it's a currency, then they won't appreciate all the other things that Bitcoin can be used for. I'm just saying that it is a lot more than a way to pay for things.

well he is right about what he said, but at the same time i think it is best to not say bitcoin is ... because bitcoin is multiple things.
the way i like to describe it is as a currency but i always mention that it is a decentralized currency with highest security and fastest transactions. and i think it is still safe to say bitcoin is pretty cheap.

the investment part, despite being what i mostly use, comes after all these and i think it should also be of less importance.

You are correct on this bitcoin is a currency but it can be so much more that not even now we have realized the full potential of bitcoin, but since bitcoin was created as  a currency then when we explain it to other people then I think that is the first aspect we need to explain to them.

Yes, people say that Bitcoin is a currency - it is the easiest way. If a person is interested, then he will soon realize that more than Bitcoin currency

The article was wittern in 2013 and bictoin was created in 2009 and had a value on 2010. So they're expecting that a bunch of large companies will accept it in just a short period of time? Changes especially with things that is a part of our lives will always take much longer . Plus bitcoin itself depends on its community so if they're losing hopes and stuffs so will bitcoin too .

??Bitcoin will not be cryptocurrency is really weird article for me because bitcoin is still cryptocurrency and I think that it will be also later because I cant undestard why to value for pay something can become stock.

Title is a bit misleading as it should be -- Bitcoin is less usable as currency. Of course Bitcoin will always remain a currency solution if you wish to use it as such. But if you look at how Bitcoin is used by the majority of the people, then it's easy to assume that Bitcoin is more an investment option rather than a currency solution. I don't think anything is wrong with that as we are all free to choose what feature of Bitcoin we will be using.

Afaik we can say bitcoin is in both worlds of being a currency and stock
which could be seen from most bitcoin traders that treat it as stock literally and the rest using it as fiat( a currency ).

I think for now we can not say that its not usable currency right now we are using it as currency and alternative payment unlike before i cant seen any site that actually accepting bitcoin as payment. right now many website are now accepting bitcoin and growing..
So we can not say that bitcoin is not usable.

You are free to think of bitcoin in that way but then any other currency is subject to the same treatment, dollars are also traded against other currencies and traders are making money on the forex market treating currency pairs as stocks, so this is not unique of bitcoin.

I couldn't agree more, Bitcoin is actually listed by the CFTC-commodities futures trading commission as a commodity hence it shows character traits of both currency and a commodity. People need to come to terms with this because it's a currency and a commodity at the same time.

We shouldn't rely on what governments or government commissions say on this matter

After all, Bitcoin is considered as a currency in Europe but does it mean that it is another Bitcoin which is used there? Obviously, it is absolutely the same Bitcoin, everywhere around the world. Governments are treating Bitcoin as they think is best for them, some governments even choose to ignore it as if it didn't exist at all. In my opinion, Bitcoin is a financial asset (like bonds or stocks), first and foremost, then a currency (currencies are also financial assets), and only after that it could be considered as a commodity since it doesn't have direct use (like food or water)

To buttress, Bitcoin is not yet a regular currency. The use to attain this currency state is being deprived by the preach of buying to store which is expected due to the volatile nature of bitcoin. No one still see bitcoin price to be stable in the foreseeable, however, it virtual state still limits it regular exchange at every thought transaction of which will require improved technology with association with bitcoin innovation.

It is true that bitcoin was and is considered as commodity than currency. People are still treating it as any other commodity that is why everyone is just buying and holding them. Isn't is like gold, metal, oil?
Most of people know, understand that bitcoin is a currency however still treat it as commodity. 
If you really want to see the power of bitcoin then try sending bitcoin to your friend in different country, see how quickly it happens. Compare it with existing establishment we have. 

PS:in case if you don't have any friend you could send bitcoins to me as well. :)

It is all about terms and defnitions,if you can buy and sell product with bitcoins it is money ,currency
China term for bitcoin is virtual goods,i think it is very good bitcon definition
So who care,bitcoin exist that is all

true! at a glance bitcoin is indeed could be defined as a virtual stock ,
but when people start to use bitcoin as a tool to pay something then it is money/currency ,
also a lot of people recently really recognize bitcoin as an investment only ,
without spend it i guess you have considered bitcoin as a virtual stock.

Bitcoin for me is considered as currencie, asset and a payment processor all at the same time, the only thing is that bitcoin is a digital currencie because countries afraid the power bitcoin can reach if they recognize it.

to me i think it is currently it as assets, and we are using it as investment, but in i am hopeful that in future when the users of bitcoin will increase then it will using as currency. in fat it is depending on the users of bitcoin if the users will increase the then it will be using as currency in the world.

Actually bitcoins are now being used by stock brookers and whale investors .by the next 3 decades it might so happen that most of the population will be using bitcoins to a whole new level and i guess it will the world s next currency.

If you mean more like the majority, I guess that is far from happening or will never gonna happen. It only attracts the investors and traders because it's getting popular now and as a result of increase of demand of bitcoin is the price increase. We all know we are getting profits when the price increase but it has a limitation and it will just only be payment system even in the future.

The fact that Bitcoin can be used for other things, shows other character traits, or its viewed differently by other people/governments doesn't make it less of a currency. It's still Bitcoin people, so where from this question "Bitcoin is no longer a currency"? Does being a bisexual render one inactive sexually???

I was confusing after reading about the article on the next 5 years that bitcoin already ended its value that it will be no longer a currency and theres something new comming that will change bitcoin into it. But how if theres an good oppurunity waiting for bitcoin isnt?

If bitcoin will no longer a currency why stil lthere are people who keeps using bitcoin? To trade investment , and other thing like gambling bitcoin can be used to the features like it can be used to payment online.

I'm not sure of that, but it seems that Bitcoin adoption doesn't depend on its users as such. After almost 8 years of Bitcoin sticking around, I guess, we can already draw some conclusions both about the past that has been and the future that might be. As to me, Bitcoin as a payment system is perfectly usable (and with Lightning Network it will be on par with payment cards such as Visa and cronies), but it still didn't take off for real besides trading and gambling. I tend to think this is primarily due to irreconcilable antagonism between a store of value and a means of exchange...

In other words, Bitcoin is too good to be used as a full-fledged currency (just like gold vs silver in Medieval Europe)

Yes, I too think it is now possible for all the people of the world to use bitcoin as online currency, while even in some places it is use as fiat currency specially in such area where the users of bitcoin are more and where even the shopkeeper also know about bitcoin and therefore they can ready to accept bitcoin for shopping.

For time being people may use bitcoins similar to stocks but they will start using it as money when they see their corner shop accepting bitcoin for candy. Yes hitting main stream of adoption will change this scenario.

Yes, holding fiat means decreasing its value, while holding bitcoin mean increasing its value. We can see that what our local fiat value was in past and how much it is now changed, but if we compare the value of bitcoin so in 2009, bitcoin value was negligible but now its value is more that 1150 USD per bitcoin.

But you always have to keep in mind that bitcoin price can swing both ways. Just remember 2013.
Of course fiat has a decrease in buying power, but it's a very slow one.
Bitcoin can lose it's value in the blink of an eye if the circumstances are unfortunate.

Slow progress, but proceeding. Maybe that article wasn't meant that straight into the face. Of course it's a currency, since people tend to use it like some currency! Facts fight fiction.

bitcoin is a currency and will always remain a currency because it has value and you can use it as such.
but being a good currency or not is the question here. so far bitcoin has been a good currency. it has been cheap, fast, safe, decentralized, and easy to use. these days it is becoming a little big more expensive but it still has all the other perks which you shouldn't ignore.

These articles are purely titled this way to attract people to click on them. Bitcoin has plenty of interesting and useful features, which doesn't directly mean each feature is perfect, but at least it gets the job done. Especially when you look at the currency aspect of Bitcoin. Example; Bitcoin as currency is less interesting to use when it comes to you daily shoppings, but it's a perfect currency tool that you can use to transfer money from one place to another. It also depends on how you use Bitcoin. These articles are just pointed at gaining ad income, so take them with a grain of salt.

I think in fact you can buy stuff using bitcoin right ? and bitcoin itself has a lot of users and has a rate as real money in general. so I think bitcoin it is still currency

Everybody can use bitcoin like investment tool right now, but after if we find stable prices we would change the meaning of invest tool to normal currency as USD or EUR. Bitcoin can be used for transactions or tool to invest and earn more some fiat money.

Technically, every country decides whether bitcoin within its borders is a currency or something else.
Based on that defenition there are different laws and taxes in every country.
So no general explanation can be made.
But of course everybody can decide for himself in what way he wants to look at bitcoin.
To me it's more an investment that can be compared to a stock at the moment.

How do you consider one thing as a currency?
So I guess for me, bitcoin is a currency which is a virtual money that we use to trade to some other bitcoin enthusiasts or users, we exchange bitcoin with the service that others render to us or the items we purchased inside the computer and so in real life if you met a user locally or in your own town. Currency is a generally accepted for of money where in we can consider bitcoin as it is, since we the users of bitcoin accepted it as a virtual money. We can invest, buy, purchase, pay using this bitcoin.

Hmmm
Technically btc has never been a currency
It's like every "coin" like ethereum too for example
It's a token linked to the blockchain technology
but the consequence is that... You can exchange this token considering it has a certain value... So it's like it's a currency ^^

Bitcoin is the fattest cash cow ever existed, call it whatever you want, important thing about it is being solid as a rock throughout the time.
You need to think about it's future not as a thing but as a concept.

LOL, "no longer". More like "never was, never will be". It's just a speculative investment vehicle. A currency has to have a mechanism keeping it in close relation to the real values available to buy on the market. Mere tradeability doesn't make something a currency.

This is a definition of a financial asset, not money

Money, basically, is a unit of account which is used to measure the value of goods in abstract units (e.g. dollars). This function or utility allows people to conveniently use it for the exchange of goods (at least, as long as this unit itself doesn't significantly change over time, e.g. due to inflation). As you can see, trading it is nowhere near that. And since trading Bitcoin (read speculating with it) makes up most of Bitcoin turnover, it can hardly be considered as a full-fledged currency

Bitcoin currency performs some function, but officially it is not a currency. Just all we used to call him that. I am sure that Bitcoin is more than a currency and payment system

Actually there were many allegation regarding bitcoin which is more "not true" just a big speculation, as other says,
they just want to attract other people especially those bitcoin enthusiast to enter their site and make some comments so that
their "news" can be popular.

But then bitcoin is truely currency because we use bitcoin to access and to have what we need like trading our thing with bitcoin in exchange of some items we need. We should not be really worried about the false statements which are being made by bitcoins haters.

yes now many who make the thread where the contents speculate bad things about bitcoin honest it was pissing me off. I still believe in bitcoin and hope some government support even accept bitcoin as a currency that is legal

Bitcoin is a currency, that was the main intent behind its creation, it fulfills and has all the characteristics you would like for money to have, a rose by any other name is still a rose and the same principle applies to bitcoin as well.

The main characteristic of bitcoin that differs from money is its being decentralized, and for me that is the biggest advantage of bitcoin to beat the money of the government since this currency that we are talking grows its value overtime while money does the opposite.
It is not a currency in legal terms but for us we always consider this as one and we even call it an internet money.

And I think that any product which can be exchanged for money is a form of currency. No matter recognize it as a means of payment or not.

Bitcoin continues to be the best currency around for a long time. Bitcoin is highly potential and the growth is increasing enormously from all sections starting from the usage of bitcoin as a store of value to payment with bitcoin similar to currency. Bitcoin due to increased acceptance in limited region and decreased acceptance by merchants around the world make it less used as a currency. In the near future can see people using bitcoin same as fiat.

In my own opinion in what I can gather in this article that since companies are not accepting or adopting bitcoin on a daily basis, then its is not functioning as a currency. For that, I will have to disagree simply because of the fact that those its only those companies that are wide enough to make the news cannot just adopt bitcoin with re-course to government legislation which will give them the financial backing. The article does not even take into consideration the thousand of individuals coming into this world on a daily basis. I feel its good to say we are not there yet but we are moving and that is a step in the right direction.

I think it's just people who hate speech bitcoin. because in fact you can see the current bitcoin highly valued and can be used for the payment method? so it is very clear that bitcoin is the currency

You are right and to add others are just making news such as this its because they can no longer think of any topic to post in this forum. They know that this kind of topic is easy to think and easy to come by. Aside from that you can expect many users in this forum will reply and comment in this thread since it looks interesting.

Bitcoin has value!But is Bitcoin a currency already? Tough question.Sure you can spend it in exchange for goods and services.
But in it's actual state I see Bitcoin more as a commodity which will slowly transform into an investment object and store of value.The last big step will be to be used by hundreds of millions of people around the world as a currency.Only then we will have reached a big enough market cap and low volatility.

It is a really old article he is referring to so expect the unexpected  ;D. I would accept the fact that bitcoin might be used solely as a currency but it can be considered as a virtual commodity and that is the truth. People who wanted to see it as currency they can do that and those who view it as a commodity it is also true.

I am agree on it, mostly people not accept that bitcoin is a currency, because people are using bitcoin for gain profit. So i think it doesn't matter bitcoin is a currency or not, because bitcoin give us a easy way to make money.

I can not call this method is very easy. The wealth extracted hard work.
But I believe in Bitcoin. And I'm sure that it will last long. At least 100 years

Decentralization is great but you seem to be talking about the 21 million cap instead, which is another great characteristics, fiat can be printed at will by the governments and it is a way to steal your money form you like a thief in the night, but the opposite happens in bitcoin and you obtain earnings by just holding it.

but you can also use it as a currency, and you can make money with USD market too, never heard of forex man? bitcoin is no different, bitcoin is both like gold and like a currency, this is the beauty of bitcoin

As with paper money, Bitcoin is given value largely by people's interest in it.  Bitcoin's increase in demand may result in a price increase, but as it is by nature a currency, becoming mainstream would stop people viewing it as solely a commodity as the price would no longer continue to increase indefinitely.  Bitcoin's concept is what gave it value and will continue to give it value.  It will not keep raising value if everyone intends to just hold it forever and not buy and sell as there would be no change in demand.

It seems to me that bitcoin is an attempt to create currency to earnings and calculations on the Internet. Old people never see because they are far from the Internet. And the youth will support it only when the Internet will exist enough jobs with high enough wages in bitcoin. While it is not.

yes bitcoin can be use for multi purposes. it can be use for investment, bitcoin can also be use for trading and it can also be use as currency both for online and off line purposes.

Bitcoin was having a lot of the advantages, But mostly person is using it for taking more profit. In fact bitcoin still also has used by a lot of the people to fill his daily life.
Really the beauty of bitcoin.

Not everything that can be exchanged for money is a form of money, money have some very specific characteristics that only some substances have, it needs to be an unit of account, fungible, a store of value, it needs to be resistant and more characteristics.

Well there are some people that try to buy and sell it to make money, which helps the Bitcoin economy. Then at the same time there are other using it as a currency, buying and selling goods and services, which also helps the Bitcoin economy. In the end I think it's all great and helps all of us grow!

Actually bitcoins is more than a currency ,Its has all over use within online transactions everyday bitcoin mainstream has begun we don't know how big companies to a research for improving and adopting bitcoins as their use . Perhaps bitcoins is more on medium of exchange now as many people make transactions everyday , Bitcoins has many aspects and it depends on how people use this .

Bitcoin doesn't become mainstream yet, but it has all chances to become. I think this year is going to be the best year in bitcoin's history, it will appear many places which will work with bitcoin directly and that will only increase it's popularity. Bitcoin is currency and that things that are going to happen with it this year only will concrete this status of bitcoin.

I use it both as currency and investment, but only for small transactions. Until such time that more people around the world becomes familiarized with bitcoin, then it will be easier to use it as a currency where there will be more merchants to accept it in every part of the world.

and young people will grow old. then the next generation will continue. forever is the currency bitcoin. because bitcoin is created for it, as a cryptocurrency and can be used to buy a like currency

Unfortunately, bitcoin now is a currency the same as dollar, euro and other fiat money. A lot of countries dont even have there own digital version of currencies and that's why people are so disapointed with bitcoin and they think it's not more then a digital code, but if look right now how much people can do with bitcoin for example pay for bills, purchase on internet, buy tickets . We can see that this digital currencies are more easier method of payment then fiat money, we can do more things with bitcoins, more faster and for less time

People knowing Bitcoin is just one aspect of the many. If you want to see people embrace Bitcoin as currency, you must realize that Bitcoin has to offer a better payment experience than what fiat is offering. Fiat expands its usability through all sorts of payment services, where these services allow people to enjoy all sorts of privileges (e.g. insurance on everything you buy, charge backs, etc). Bitcoin must perform significantly better (in currency aspect) will people ever want to prefer Bitcoin over the fiat related services they make use of.

As far as I know, Bitcoin is created to get away from the grasp of financial institution.  The reason of it being decentralized and not ruled by any country.  And I think it is the young adult to middle aged people that are the first one to adopt Bitcoin. But I think the core team were at middle adult range.  So basically old people are the first one to know Bitcoin.  Never think that adult people does not know how to use an internet, remember internet is around for several decades now.  They know how to use it before you do.

I'm using it for both things too. And I don't get it why there are people that are keep on saying opposite things about bitcoin now.

They keep on telling the opposite situation and success of bitcoin right now and for the past years.

And I'm glad that I'm experiencing the features of bitcoin and keep on using it as a currency for real like paying bills.

bitcoin is a cryptographic code in a database with timestamped entries.  the function for bitcoins is changing and will change. you can use it for short datastorage, as a currency, as an asset, as an smartcontract etc. it depend on the eco system development what is going to be possible ...

Honestly, I'm more inclined to think that these are in fact minor issues

Indeed, it would be better if transactions were faster (or still better if they were just instant) but ten minutes is still a pretty close approximation to perfection (fiat transfers are nowhere near instant either). As to me, a heavily inflating currency would still be by far inferior to a rock-solid Bitcoin even if the former were outperforming the latter in every aspect of usability. Because no matter what number you multiply by null, you will still end up with only null. Consequently, it is more important for Bitcoin to become stable than to become (more) usable. But that is a preferred choice which we basically lack, i.e. we are stuck with Bitcoin volatility and therefore this competition is a losing game, anyway (if we reverse this approach)

There is actually a thin line in separating the two when it comes to the issue of bitcoin. If it were to be gold, I would have agreed perfectly but not for bitcoin because it equally works as a medium of exchange, at the same time as a store of value. On this forum, we have people earn bitcoin for services rendered at the same time some people prefer to buy and hold in other to make more money. At the same time, when they are ready to sell, they sell to those who will be ready to use it to pay for services and the cycle continues.

i think that there is no doubt that bitcoin is a currency and it will remain as currency in future also. i think in future the use of bitcoin as currency will be more and more, because the number of shops who are accepting bitcoin is increasing too much.

yes that is right that bitcoin can be use as currency as both options for online as well as for fiat, in some place where the users of bitcoin are more and where the shopkeepers also know about the importance of bitcoin and they know about the importance of bitcoin then people have opportunities there to use bitcoin.

I like to ask if any currency had ever been invested into before, It seems not to be property of a known currency. I stand to be corrected.

Completely agree with you , i have seen a lot of people put their marriage messages in the bitcoin blockchain.

It would become more popular in the future , depends on what you need as long as it's related to cryptograph bitcoin could be used as anything!

But people start concern about the high price and recently they see it as an opportunity to make money as investment , the function as digital money would always there exist.

Having two incomes, and separately receiving bitcoin and fiat, it is possible to invest Fiat, and beatcoin to save. I like investing in real estate. This is a good income.

In order to invest in real estate you need to accumulate a lot of money. This is a serious investment.
In bitcoin it is easier to invest, because you can buy only a small part of this coin

Just say that bitcoin is a crypto currency. And I do believe that bitcoin will always be a currency for all of us who keep on using it. Because the transactions are happening everyday and we can see that there's a delay of confirmation. It means that many people are transacting everyday and uses bitcoin as a currency.

Indeed Bitcoin will never be called a cryptoCURRENCY  if it is not a currency.  Funny how people push their agenda eventthough it is out of the context.  Though Bitcoin can function as store of value but the main reason why it is created is to be a currency that is uncontrolled by the government or any financial institution.

Bitcoin was not an ordinary currency online. It is actually an extraordinary virtual currency, I've ever seen in my entire life honestly speaking. I cannot say that bitcoin is not a currency, How can we say its not a currency if we can use it as commodity into our daily expenses, or use it as sending money to our loved ones, also even in electric bill, water bill, telephone bill, is this a type of of no longer a currency? It is alternative currency which is bitcoin in online world of payment.

although bitcoin is a commodity and created for the purpose as an investment but the passage of time. bitcoin has many advantages so that the current can be used as currency or payment options

bitcoin is long time in curency, ETF aprove or disaprove bitcoin still work
but if ETF, SEC and PBOC legalcy bitcoin, bitcoin can strong and very long time curency, and bitcoin price can incraese very high

It was never about the ETF or any governing agency! Bitcoin was never a currency in the first place. It was just coin that way but in reality there will be no jurisdiction in the world that would recognize Bitcoins as a legitimate currency. This is because a currency, by definition, is a tender of payment that is backed up by gold or a country. Which bitcoin is neither.

no , currency should be defined as a tool to pay something , to buy something and recognized by a group or an institution which bitcoin has in all of those criteria. satoshi clearly stated that bitcoin A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System , which means it is a currency , you know that.

the problem now , a lot of people hold bitcoin more than those people who spend it .

you are right. whatever their decision, bitcoin will still be used as money on the internet. but, I think it will also affect the quality of bitcoin. but, when they gave a good response about bitcoin, I think the price will rise, and everyone will say that bitcoin is currency.

Even if the main reason bitcoin is used is to get profit and not because they believe in the technology it is still fine, since those persons will definitely become part of the bitcoin economy in the long term since bitcoin will keep offering chances to profit big.

You seem to be confused a lot

First, you seem to be confusing a legitimate currency with a legal tender. Legal tender is what government has taken an obligation onto itself to accept as a means of payment for duties, taxes and debts. But that pretty much all there is to the idea of legal tender. In many jurisdictions no merchant or provider is obliged to accept what the government sets as legal tender. Essentially, it is their free choice to refuse you what you offer as payment. Further, foreign currencies are not legal tender either (unless explicitly accepted as such, e.g. in some small countries which adopted the US dollar as their national currency), but that doesn't make them somehow illegitimate or illegal. And in some countries Bitcoin is officially declared as a foreign currency (e.g. in the EU)

Currency definition (Oxford Dictionary):
"a system of money in general use in a particular country".

Interestingly, the dictionary views money as "in the form of coins and banknotes", suggesting that it would be in physical form.  But when people mention that Bitcoin is a currency they nearly always mention that it is based online - a cryptocurrency.  Therefore in its own sense it was definitely a currency.

But rather than worrying pedantically about whether it was exactly a currency, we can just say that it was definitely intended as a means of transferring goods - one that was convenient and decentralised and the idea is very good.  Unfortunately, OP is right that in many cases, it is viewed as a stock.  But I do believe that Bitcoin can get past this hurdle.  I don't think that having a deflationary currency inherently results in hoarding because people still need to buy things in their lives.  The only issue is scalability and Bitcoin's community is principled enough to genuinely make progress because as soon as we are past this we reach a new stage in which Bitcoin can (potentially) be used in everyday life.

It can even be both an asset and a currency which, frankly, is just win-win for people who take part and encourages people to use Bitcoin.  There are so many uses because they could even buy other assets with what they already view to be an asset.

For me, first of all, bitcoin is a commodity for which I can receive money. To date, we all know that without fiat is indispensable and if there are opportunities to sell or trade bitcoin, then this is the best choice.

I beg to differ because Bitcoin dies everything a fiat currency does and more. The blockchain technology behind Bitcoin facilitates payments even better and globally from the comfort of your home with all the privacy you crave. I don't see where it's no longer a currency? Is it because it has traits of a commodity?

Exactly and it's not just sometime that will be used by us if we don't believe that it's a good way to transact and buy goods online. There are merchants all over the world that is making it as a currency that's why many of us treats it as a currency for real. I don't know why there are people who really doesn't think that it isn't a currency.

I realized it when the price increase to ATH and the problem seems not so good. It's about block size, high fees and long time to get confirmed, how could bitcoin could be a currency if it has those problem?
Yes, I think it just for investment/commodity as long as this problem cannot be solved yet.

Agree, Bitcoin is a currency because it has a value and in the first launch of bitcoin it was called as crypto curreny so bitcoin is a currency. Some article says that bitcoin is the future money and I think all of us is know that it has a possibility so from the word itself the bitcoin is a curreny. Somehow some people think that bitcoin is not a currency, I don't think that is even possible there are just creating a new agenda where they can have some credibility with that, new theory. but the definition itself is given to the bitcoin so nobody can change it.

I disagree with what Mathew O'brien said because bitcoin is a currency not a tech stock and this kind of a thing will happen just because bitcoin is not centralize or control by any government agency or organization. I guess this is the reason why the Texas law firm said no government should impede anyone of having bitcoin. If bitcoin is not a currency why would New Hampshire state house passed House Bill 436 which exempts bitcoin from costly money transmitter regulations?

I doubt that bitcoin is not a currency because if bitcoin is not currency then why we are able to spend our bitcoins in doing transactions or using it as an exchange for a particular item. Bitcoin is a currency and also investment/asset at the same time and there is no doubt that we considered it as a currency because it has a value and we can use it to do a lot of things including buying items online and even offline.

You are right and there is indeed a proper system made to accept bitcoins as payment : Bitpay

Another reason why I consider bitcoins as a currency is because it's transparent, can be tracked, can be kept in a wallet and how can someone deny that bitcoins is not a currency ? I mean any valid argument regarding this statement ?

I am able to transact my asset in bonds if i want to and with the digital asset you are able to do it convincingly and that is the biggest difference and i would consider bitcoin to be a investment as well as an asset,any can set up a value if there are more buyers and the buyer has to shell out their money to purchase the coin

I think that bitcoin is currency I mean cryptocurrency not only currency what means that bitcoin price is fast changing what is good for investing in bitcoin so I dont think that we can call bitcoin investment when cryptocurrency=investment.

It seems to me that the rapid change in prices can only scare off investors in bitcoin. Such jumps is dangerous. The price may increase and an equally fast fall.

It never been a currency, bitcoin is like an investent where people do to get some income, and currency means a money people spend for every day use, and bitcoin can only be a currency if technologies are good enough to transfer bitcoin without any hussle, so the transaction will have no problem no more.

I don't consider Bitcoin as a stock. For many reasons one good reason is that BItcoin is not a company, a company that pays dividends and rights. Also to be a stock you need to be publicly listed in Bitcoin's case it had created a new kind of exchange revolving cryptocurrencies and does not revolve around stock companies. Don't mix Bitcoin as a stock.

Technically mate bitcoins is not a currency because a currency would be something that can be generated more and more on demand while bitcoins amount is fixed by satoshi and cannot be changed, bitcoins is rather more of an asset that is traded based on the demand and need of the market.

Agree with this completely. Bitcoin doesn't satisfy the definition of a currency, and the part that is most lacking is a stable store of value. It's too volatile, which makes it fantastic for gamblers and speculators to trade in and out of it, but terrible for conducting commerce or using to store wealth, which are necessary for a currency to provide. I can get on board with calling it an investment, but it's clearly a speculative and high risk investment. Based on its characteristics, it cannot be more than that.

I think yeah its not a currency but it is a crypto currency they are different breed of currency..  bitcoin is a crypto currency which is you use anonymously unlike a real currency that you can use it  with your real info or personal information here in online. .
Well i think its not a problem since bitcoin right now we can use it as currency since many website are accepting bitcoin as payment or exchange it into money.

In our own definition it's an online currency and it will be the most popular currency in the future. Bitcoin is very progressive as it's again rising coming from a big dump in the past few days. With this, it will continue to increase because we make it possible to happen.

These are not Bitcoin inherent characteristics or features, by any means

Bitcoin is volatile precisely because it is not used in commerce, though this is sort of a vicious circle here. That is, Bitcoin is not used as a real currency because it is too volatile but it is too volatile because it is not used as a currency. Nonetheless, I still have to add that I don't agree that the most important feature of a currency (which Bitcoin allegedly lacks) is being a stable store of value. But let's assume that you are right (i.e. being a stable store of value is an important if not outright most important characteristic of a currency). In this very case, Bitcoin has everything in it to become such a store of value since its issuance is rigidly fixed, predetermined as well as known in advance to virtually everyone who cares, and there cannot possibly be more than 21M coins in the end. As you can easily conclude, volatility is not inherent to Bitcoin and thus it is necessarily caused by external factors which can change over time

Like what I said Bitcoin cannot be considered as a stock it is not run by a company who has a CEO and Board of Directors. It is even funny to be naming it as the ultimate Tech Stock because it not even near the prices of Apple and Microsoft. What I am trying to say Bitcoin can be respected as a kind of currency but not a kind of stock.

All around the world bitcoin is not yet known in the other country so far. Still majority of the nations now are not familiar with bitcoin, only in the country who accepted so much bitcoin. Most of the people in the whole world bitcoin was not a currency like a real money, but in some few countries like Australia, Japan, China, Europe and Russia bitcoin is a kind of currency. So meaning, this will depend on the understanding of indivduals.

Bitcoins is virtually a currency but all the guys that introduced me to bitcoins always call it asset. They always say that bitcoins is virtual gold that's price changes often when the market demand more.
But there are 25+ sites that I myself know who accept bitcoins as payment and there are big ones too like skrill and neteller !

I think the reason some may think bitcoin is dead as a currency strive from the fact, bitcoin cannot longer be used for small transactions since fees are getting pretty high and also because there are not many spots where we can use bitcoin as a currency instead of an investment.

I agree with the statement, Bitcoin is an asset class with development around the blockchain and acts as a general means of trading being derivatives of the main product.

Alt-coins could be considered a part of Bitcoins asset class as the base currency used to measure other assets which is why a Hard Fork is a scary prospect because there would be no base index in the period between Bitcoin-A and Bitcoin-B to base price values upon.

The Atlantic article gets into the basis of that question with what is money, Bitcoin can be worth anything without a fundamental basis although the premise The more Bitcoin is worth, the more worthless it is as a currency, as a food for thought is an interesting one.

It can be both and yet one is still greater than the other one we view Bitcoin as asset class and yet also means of trading value but that is what makes it fun and is a fundamental reason for blocksize debate.

Is it more valuable as an index towards other coins or as a means of low friction transactions the community will decide that one in due time.

but i think bitcoin is a currency but the only difference is that bitcoin is a online currency. and very soon we are going to use bitcoin as fiat currency in our local shops.

It is a cryptocurrency which is loved by all, but the thing about cryptocurrency when they are not really known to their place, it became an asset. An asset that will be profitable after a long time, what's more is that it is treated as an asset because of its price that just overcome gold this month.
It is not use a cryptocurrency but an asset, well that's mostly bitcoin users do.

Good thing it is already happening nowadays, if you would have the chance to read news updates, blogs and article bitcoin is already using as mode of payment in any local shops especially online. The best thing is there are real estates now accepting bitcoin to buy a house.

I think its already been on the list of cryptocurrency here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cryptocurrencies
And i think we can be still consider it as currency not a  local currency but its a global currency that we can use anytime with internet..
But if we compare this currency to other local currency they are different due to fast price fluctuate..  and this coins is anonymous and you have a freedom where you spend it..

of course it is because of the deployment of bitcoin pretty good.. adoption continues to happen everywhere. so many merchants began to believe and use bitcoin for their payment options I hope this continues

Bitcoin is a currency. We all know that it is define as a crypto currency, a digital money. It is already serves as a payment method to purchase products and services. Its all depend on a user on how he treats it, the way he use it. They say it is not a medium of exchange because it's a virtual form of money.

Those people that are saying that bitcoin is no longer a currency are just destroying bitcoins success and they are jealous on what bitcoin is experiencing now. Right now, we really can see on how far bitcoin is and how the people are depending their lives with it and with different transactions that we are doing with it, definitely bitcoin will always be a currency.

Just because people watch the price of bitcoin like it is a stock does not make bitcoin a stock, it just makes bitcoin a more unique currency (which is pretty much what it is). I think that everybody in here can agree with me when I say that bitcoin is indeed used as a currency, hell I'm even being paid to write this right now, and we all understand that it is meant for trading. However, I do agree with you in saying that it is indeed a good thing!

It was described as online currency or a payment system, it has no form to be considered as money since it has no independent value and it's only use as substitute to fiat for a faster transaction. That is how I understand bitcoin, in real definition by the law, it cannot be considered as currency since currency is money, but even so, it has a great value which very amazing for a thing that is not considered as a currency.

Chicken and the egg argument notwithstanding, instability is an inherent characteristic of bitcoin. Bitcoin has never been stable enough for dependable commerce because it's not backed by anything but a collective sense of what it's worth. If there were no alternative currencies in the world, perhaps it would have a stable value out of necessity. It's because there actually are stable currencies that bitcoin can fluctuate, because wealth created by fluctuating value is preserved by selling out of the position. The fixed supply hasn't done anything to create a stable value, so you have to conclude that the volatility is because no one is interested in it as a currency, but a speculative vehicle from which they can profit from. Of the major functions of money, (medium of exchange, unit of account, store of value) store of value is the only one bitcoin doesn't meet well, and there's no reason to expect that it ever will. Bitcoin will always be short term in nature, because holding long term opens the holder up to the risk of wild fluctuations in the value stored within, which is the last thing anyone should want in a currency.

I don't particularly disagree with your attitude

But you still seem to lack a proper understanding and deep insight into the matter of things, in this case into currencies and money. Personally, I would refrain from distinguishing between them here to avoid useless confusion. In other words, you describe effects without trying to delve into the causes of these effects. First of all, any currency (whether is backed up by anything or not) remains a matter of "a collective sense of what it's worth". More specifically, currency worthiness (as a currency) is defined exclusively by whether it is used as a currency or not ("money is what money does"). Gold is dear, but it basically has no monetary utility (read it is not money) because it doesn't and cannot circulate nowadays as a currency

Further, I don't agree that "a store of value is the only [function] bitcoin doesn't meet well". Not that I deny that it is factually wrong. It would be going against reality to argue to the contrary (at least, so far). What I mean to say is that Bitcoin's store of value advantage before fiat currencies gets heavily overridden and massively "run over" by external factors. Nevertheless, this built-in feature, its essence of sorts, is still showing through when we see attempts at instigating panic sell-off now and then, which still miserably fail. In other words, the kind of volatility we see today is not the volatility of some trash asset or money. It seems to be directed primarily upwards, and it is debatable whether we can call it volatility at all

While the volatility on bitcoin price may scare off those investors that prefer to take safe investments for many bitcoin offers the opportunity to earn big in a liquid market that moves extremely fast and give to them the best chances of making money fast.

volatility of bitcoin NEVER scares off any investors. it scares of average Joes who want to buy bitcoin and use it as a currency. the investors know what volatility is and how they can take advantage of it which means the love it and will invest because of this volatility.
but in the end we need stability of price if we are to move forward and see mass adoption.

That's their favorite actually especially the day traders, like me because of the volatility of bitcoin I take the opportunity to buy low and sell high even in a short period of time and that gives a good margin of profit if you can do the right timing. Whatever people think, I focus more on the long term investment and it's just a bonus for me when I earn in short term trades although it's not all the time.

Bitcoin is volatile but its movement is going up, time is only our friend if we will employ the right patience before we sell for a good profit.

Everyone wants both stability and price growth. But this is impossible. There will always be a risk. It seems to me that the Crypto currency will never be stable

yes there is no doubt about this that bitcoin is universal digital currency that is equally use in all over the world. hope that very soon bitcoin will also be use in such area where bitcoin still not so much introduce.

Indeed, Bitcoin is not an asset which would draw in many Warren Buffett style investors

But Warren Buffett, for all his wealth, knowledge and wisdom, is certainly not the only investor out there, nor he is the only type of investor existing across the markets. While Bitcoin doesn't quite scale up to George Soros caliber, he would certainly love Bitcoin and the volatility it offers. While Buffett is more of an institutional type of investor, Soros is an outright speculator. And for the latter type of trading folk, Bitcoin is an excellent tool and its volatility attracts these dudes like shit attracts flies (or like honey attracts bees, if you are not quite happy with that comparison)

Apart from this Bitcoin are stock, investment, worthy or not, etc., keeping in view the fact that Bitcoin is a digital currency, this is probably what distinguishes Bitcoin to another. It's about technology, a major breakthrough that makes everyone did not think that Bitcoin will be like this now. What to do with it, Bitcoin Bitcoin remains, would be made like any Bitcoin will remain like this. Bitcoin is more than what was previously people think.

I agree, people have giving up on the idea of having bitcoin as a currency and started using it as a type of investment since its price started going up with the increasing number of users and they have started treating it like gold, they buy it and they save it for a time when they think it is best to sell it.

But, it is already explained by many people that once bitcoins get stable prices, people will start using it as currency but it will take decades to happen.

You said technically bitcoin is not a currency and I don't agree with you on that. You also said bitcoins amount is fixed by satoshi and cannot be changed. Listen to me, a lot of new thing is happening this days in the world of bitcoin and I guess you don't know that a mining software which does not based on
Satoshi’s original code was developed?

All of the best store of value that we have have been currencies at some point and the same applies to bitcoin, but bitcoin is way better at being a currency than gold and silver will ever be, so I disagree with the notion bitcoin is not a currency.

Yup we can say that :D after ready that article
However I still believe it's a virtual currency and nothing will change this fact

Although I agree with you in most of what you said, I don't agree with you as to buy coin not being a medium of exchange.

But coin is designed to be currency, and it is traded and used like a currency. However the most important aspect of bitcoin is probably it's store of value. It's like the digital gold because production is decentralised and controlled by absolutely nobody.

It is a medium of exchange just like fiats. In fact, bitcoin is much more portable than gold itself, and more divisible as well.

There is no need to test the purity of bitcoin, as every unit is the same.

It's no longer a currency but an investment that could take a long journey of our lives. The opportunity of this digital currency will become more stable in the future and investments really gave the best performance of btc market. Nowadays better profit awaits us like price still low and so you will have the reasons to hold it for a few days and sell the holdings you have, when price will eventually become higher again and hopefully reaching at $1500.

I guess you haven't taken a look at the prices recently

Personally, I don't really think that something can be considered a store of value if its value changes dozens of percentages daily. At best, it can be thought of as a highly speculative (read risky) asset but to call it a store of value seems to be an obvious overstretch. Regarding Bitcoin being used and traded as a currency, this is just another misconception. Even if real fiat like the US dollar gets traded, it basically stops being a currency and turns into yet another financial asset like bonds, derivatives and indexes

It's still a currency, but right now the price was changing really fast. I think better to sell right now your coins and wait for any dumps, if you read the last news we had a lot of issues with lost bitcoins 3 billion bitcoins been wiped. Indeed, we know that anything can happend in this 2 weeks better to buy some fiat money and save them for next invest

Well in that case, You better continue what are you doing now. Because I know your in the right track of keeping and holding your bitcoin actually. It maybe to some bitcoin is not a currency, but as long as we are in bitcoin world, it is still the number one digital currency online business. And time will come people in different places in the whole world will massively accept and adopt bitcoin. :)

In terms of online transaction nothing can beat bitcoins, it is widely used now and crypto currencies has a very big potential to rule in the future. The gambling industry alone is already adopting with bitcoin because it's fast and the transaction is cheap compared to the conventional ways.
Even bitcoin is not a legal currency but this payment system can be used as currency and investment at the same time.

I think so, because a lot of the news about the bitcoin hardfork has make a panic feel for every bitcoiners. And if the bitcoin chain gets split and it will give a negative impact for the bitcoin in the future. This time is not the right time to get on the bitcoin.

actually not a single country has yet consider bitcoin as legal currency but they do not even consider it as illegal and that is the reason that people are using bitcoin so freely, and every one is expected that very soon their government will consider bitcoin as legal currency .

I think yes bitcoin is like stock without dividen and movement of bitcoin price is like stock,
at least analysis technical darvas box worked for me when trading bitcoin to fiat currency
bitcoin is no currency because there is bug block size of bitcoin that take high fees sending bitcoin,
so bitcoin can not be considered as currency at least for today.

Yes, doesn't matter if it is called as currency or not, but it is decentralized investment tool which you can use for yourself whenever you need. btc has more security than any other investment, it has lot of other features like : low transaction fee, easy to transfer/receive, very secure.

When bitcoin reach all time high, I got it why it can not state as a currency because bitcoin can't afford so many transaction and we have to pay higher fees to send it and make longer to be confirmed which consider as big disadvantages than other fiat currencies.
I agree bitcoin can be a medium of exchange, same as gold or another precious things but not as currency just like fiat money, for now.

I think the problem of why people don't use bitcoin as currency is in that that there are no places that would accept bitcoins directly as payment without fees that we have to pay today to cash out our bitcoins to go in a supermarket and to buy what we want.

This is without a doubt a problem, since we don’t have many places where we wan spend our coins then the use of bitcoin as a currency is limited and when we add the fees on top of that bitcoin is not very practical at the moment.

There are sites that accept Bitcoin directly and some local cafe, so it is not "no places" but the limited stores that accept Bitcoin directly.  I can feel you, it is also my experience that I need to convert Bitcoin to our local currency before I can go shopping.  But this does not mean that Bitcoin is no longer a currency.  It is just honored in my country that Bitcoin is indeed a currency that can be accepted as payment.

bitcoin is not currency but it is a digital wallet/digital coin. it needs conversion to use for the daily purpose. never less to say that bitcoin gives us benefits like less transaction charges, very secure, easy transferable and best way of investment.

Practically speaking it is not completely the money. however as you have mentioned above with little conversion we can use the btc. it is not completely money but it is somehow helping us to get what we want that itself is a big thing. hoping that more people start using the btc so it gets more popular.

Those people that are thinking bitcoin isn't a currency now are those people that wants to make their coins pumped and used by bitcoin users. They are spreading lies throughout the forum just like what happened with bitcoins price. It's dropping because of their ambitious goal to make in line with bitcoin which is a crazy thing.

The fact that it shows glimpses of a commodity or stock doesn't make it less of a currency. It's just that Bitcoin is more than a currency but not less of a currency. It has more features other fiats don't plus it can do more and the blockchain technology behind it makes payment processing easier world wide.

We have to focus on what bitcoin can only deliver, it's not a fiat then fine but I can say now it's useful than fiat at least to all of us who appreciate bitcoin. It will not be the future but I am sure it's going to be big, the future still depends on how people will be able to accept this innovative technology.

Investing in real estate is not a joke, it needs big capital for you to have an investment in this type scheme. compare into bitcoin, you can invest in the amount what you can afford to buy only.

Bitcoin is not as good as it used to anymore. Since the number of the people using Bitcoin increases, the blockchain and miners can not handle and make all transaction confirmed in 24 hours and it is very suck. You know, sending $1000000 oversea in only 2-3 days is a great thing but buying a cup of coffee for 2-3 days is a disaster

I think the bitcoin currency. All that you can buy a product can be considered currency. As for the price, I think it will fall further. It is impossible to keep such a high price. Stable the currency will not.

Bitcoin is now good more than before. Yes, was having problem with the block size since number of bitcoin users increase. But a lot of correction were through the network which work on blockchain transaction. The developer were the cause of the problem though and this don't stop bitcoin from been a decentralized currency.

Progress of adoption is not a problem, not yet anyway. We estimate that legitimate uses of the blockchain storage space to be approximately 3/4 of 1 MB.
All other data is either spam or useless data. W can still have properly confirmed transaction with proper and hefty fee.
SegWit and Lightning Network activation (hopefully) will solve that problem in the future completely.

I dont think that it was treated still as a currency, when is the last time you paid for something using bitcoin? It is treated now as an asset especially to third worlds that do not have that much information bout the digital currrencies. In my country there are no bitcoin ATMs and there are only few stores that accept bitcoin, which is really dissapointing. So what will you do with your bitcoin when you can't use it to buy something, you save them, and the very good way to earn is to wait for a good price and sell it or convert to real money. It is an asset.

I guess as long as it can be used as payment I will call it a currency which is (virtual currency). Moreover, if bitcoin is not a currency it shouldn't be en-cash or convert it into a real currency of each nation.

I have always considered bitcoin an asset not a currency.

I think they could not use bitcoin for spending easily and freely. so they say that it is not a currency bitcoin? I think it naturally happened

if this is not a mat bitcoin money but bitcoit is a stock company, as the stock has a high price and the price can go down as well. most of the price or value increased by adoption and demands.

Yes, bitcoin is an asset but this doesn't mean bitcoin is not a currency. I have something for all of you that said bitcoin is not currency. Anything that have values or can be used in making payments or can be transferred digitally are also asset? Therefore, the so call currency you spent in your country is also an asset.

Actually, you already answered your own question dude, it is true the bitcoin is a store of value. But for me I would rather go to hold some bitcoin for the future preparation due to the volatility is very aggressive when it comes the value is movable sometimes too.

Bitcoin is more than just a currency. Bitcoin can be used as an investment that provides a better profit than what we previously did. Popularity bitcoin's evidence bitcoin has a bright future.

If anything Bitcoin makes an interesting debate on where something of value that is divisible and easily spendable changes from an asset to a currency, or the other way around. There aren't really any good ways to reference the information for something like this since the only instance we've had was gold (and other metal) coins transitioning into bars and the like, but the thought experiment is interesting nonetheless. I've heard that there is a different between currency and money, so where does Bitcoin fit in?

Yup, I exclusively hold bitcoins as a store of value and I'm not ever going to sell them. Once I retire I'll use them as my spending money. If they're worth nothing then I guess I'll just buy a nice rocking chair and watch the days pass by until I croak. Either way is good for me.

yes basically bitcoin is a currency and specially is an online currency, but the problem is that he users of bitcoin are still very low therefore most of the people are not using it as currency and are using bitcoin as for investment.

Those people that are saying that bitcoin is dead and it is no longer a currency are the ones who want to make the others worry about their investment in bitcoin. Definitely bitcoin is more than a currency, it is a all in one currency , investment and remittance payment method.

Yeah and since there is miner stores (and a few others) that do take bitcoin as payments. I've used it. Heck and with the recent addition of cards like the shift visa card that allow you to swipe for purchases straight from a BTC wallet I think the usability is going up every day.

Well to an extent you are right since the bitcoin price as rose now to all time nearly those who hold the btc have gained significantly. Now those who have sold out have missed this rally and are little suspicious about it and this is making their thinking in this way I suppose.

That is why it is good to hold bitcoin so we will not missed any kind of rally for the price. If the price of bitcoin goes down then hold it and don't sell it and the best thing to do in that situation is to just continue to add more and more bitcoin in that amount so if another rally starts then you can easily get a lot of profit because you took advantage from buying cheap bitcoins. Don't sell like other already did because they didn't realize their possible profit in the future.

Bitcoin is the result of modern technology, like credit cards. Bitcoin makes it easier for many people to make financial transactions. Bitcoin is much better than currency.

Every bubble has a story, and Bitcoin has been no exception. The increasing price of Bitcoin will increase demand for Bitcoin. It's a speculative bubble just as hoarding is reducing supply. In other words, prices will go vertical. Bitcoin is more than a currency and an assest for me. So I'm holding my cryptocurrency, buy more when my money is enough to purchase again.  :) Those people utterly that bitcoin is dead and no longer a currency are the ones who make others worry for their investment.

Until there are suitable scaling issues bitcoin will never be currency. It is currently suffering from politics that people suggested bitcoin would be immune to, but alas it is not, everyone will fight over control of anything with value in this world.

That being said its not necessarily a bad thing if bitcoin is like some form of asset that is rarely transacted, at least for most hodlers its a good thing.

Bitcoin will remain a currency at least for online entrepreneurs. Or even very possible later bitcoin will be recognized as a means of payment.

They can't accept the fact that they are missing a lot of good things with bitcoin. If they are the ones that sold their btc's at early and lower price, it's their problem but they can still cope up because the price of bitcoin will keep on rising. And for those people that really doesn't have something to do, they just want to make bitcoin's image bad.

Right now its a currency/ speculative investment.
Fees are getting to the point that its not worth sending micro-transactions (unless you are willing to wait hours/ days)
so its basically for people who already have money to send medium/ large payments, and invest with the hope of increase in price over time.

Though bitcoin has a feature of what op describe bitcoin to be such as commodity, store of values and stock like amazon and facebook! seen bitcoin as commodities make bitcoin to losses it fundamental nature of it been decentralized crypto currencies and seen as stock will undermined it values as money.

At the beginning of bitcoin it is not accepted in our economy as a currency. But they will study the bitcoin that what was the benefits of it in our economy later on bitcoin is accepted as a currency. There are some bitcoin used for criminal transaction because it is anonymous.

I don't think that this difference makes a lot of sense and relevance

Provided there is any at all. Anyway, it would be of purely scientific or academic interest mostly. Nevertheless, there is still a substantial difference between a genuine currency or money and a financial asset which has almost all required features for the former except the most important one (i.e. universal acceptance as a means of payment and exchange). More specifically, I can point out at least three factors that prevent Bitcoin from turning into a full-fledged currency (i.e. from acquiring universal adoption as a means of payment). First, it is severe volatility, and it is likely the strongest factor. Second, it is long confirmation times which nowadays make it uncompetitive against fiat in any retail or online business which requires instant payments. And third (and likely the weakest factor), it is deflationary nature of Bitcoin, though this is also the most debatable factor among these three factors which prevent Bitcoin from becoming a genuine money

bitcoin is a currency no doubt about that and hope that it will continue as currency for ever, in face i present time the users of bitcoin are not too much therefore most of the people are using bitcoin for investment only but hope that in future we will be using bitcoin both for investment as well as a currency also.

and specially in physical shops the shopkeepers are not ready to accept bitcoin, i think still it will take a lot of time when all the people of the world will start using bitcoin and the all the shops will also accept bitcoin for shopping.

You are right, but criminal activity does not mean that bitcoin is not accepted in our economy as a currency, you are right it's anonymously. but also we can use fiat for criminal activity too.
Nowdays, bitcoin are accepted anywhere in the internet not all of them but in a lot of marketplaces. So maybe one day will be accepted in the real world.

but i heard that many shopkeepers accepting bitcoin and i hope that bitcoin will be also acceptable in local shop in your country and bitcoin is trusted currency because people easily will accept bitcoin in their shopping center.

I agree bitcoin will always be a currency. Now it is even recognized as mode of payment.  Bitcoin might have another function like store of value or digital gold, but Bitcoin main purpose will always be a currency.  It is bitcoin's strength and purpose.  So definitely anyone who is thinking that bitcoin is no longer a currency needs to check more about Bitcoin and it's current function.

yes in some places for example in Brazil the shopkeepers already accept bitcoin, actually the number of bitcoin users are more there as compare to other places and that is the only reason that even the shopkeepers have good knowledge about bitcoin and therefore they are accepting bitcoin in their shops.

That is right, one of the early adopters of bitcoin is the country of Brazil and i think they have a lot of good results for using bitcoin as their another kind of payment system and the owners of the shops are already earned a lot of money like now that the price of bitcoin is very high and they almost double or triple the value of their bitcoin right now.

It's more hit-and-miss for timing when it comes to shops and keeping their Bitcoin stored, it really depends on the individual shop but there are some that convert to fiat within a day, others may hold for a week or month, but it is rarely ever kept for a long time as Bitcoin and shops typically don't act as major traders on exchanges with much influence, they're more often just places wanting to get their work done and make sure they can still work the next day.

I may be wrong, but that's the trend I observed.

This is not easy as it looks like.
Accepting bitcoins is one thing and daily getting many customers who pay in bitcoins is another.
In most of my local shops too there is at most 10 transactions in a day in bitcoins, so it's not like that they will be rich in case of bitcoin ralley as the bitcoins they own are pretty much less to make rich them in a price ralley.

While you were telling me all about my lack of understanding and deep insight into the nature of money, you were displaying your own misconceptions about quite a basic concept. Perhaps you'd be better suited not to lecture from a place of perceived superiority when you don't understand basic concepts like volatility yourself. Volatility is a very specific and easily demonstrable concept. Volatility is a measure of price change over time. The only way not to have volatility is to have stable prices over time. Constantly moving in one direction is not an unvolatile instrument. When you plot bitcoins historical volatility against the dollar, its striking and there's no debate to be had. The blue line below is Bitcoin's volatility compared to the USD, and the purple line is gold's volatility compared to the same. Measurements use the daily standard deviation over the preceding 30 day window.

https://i.imgur.com/iJPHrRU.jpg

Brazil is the one that adopted bitcoin in the early days of its existence. Now this has profited big with the enormous growth happening with bitcoin. Brazil has got more shops that accept bitcoin and soon this will be overcome by Japan as more than 25k merchandisers have started accepting bitcoin making a big moves in the price.

Well, the more others says that bitcoin is no longer a currency it became more a legal currency online and also became popular too. Look a the price value of bitcoin at the present time now it is almost 1700$ each bitcoin. The demand was getting higher more and more and many businesses too are also adopting the concept of bitcoin.

Bitcoin is more than a currency, bitcoin has risen to an asset for one's investment, because many people get big profits from current price spike. Demand for bitcoin is increasing, giving extra benefits to bitcoin owners who hold it.

Well, if bitcoin is not considered a currency, then it is considered a good asset for the future which is constantly growing rapidly.

This has a lot more to do with hedge funds who have gotten into Bitcoin than individual users. Institutional managers have far more ability to affect the price than regular folks, and over the past few years there have been numerous private funds that have been started to buy and hold Bitcoin on behalf of wealthy investors.

I believe that bitcoin is an investment or a virtual currency. In any case, this is a very useful thing to become rich.

Bitcoin has become a trend in financial world. Although virtual, many types of businesses are adopting bitcoin technology. And this became one source of income for people who are observant.

This is very very interesting.  I hadn't actually given that a thought.  I suppose if we consider things as they are at the present time in terms of popularity and whether or not states or businesses are adopting the use of bitcoin; i too would have to agree.  Maybe i'm too much of an optimist, but i believe strongly that it will eventually be widely accepted across the world.  I'm of the view that states/businesses probably have people working on the feasibility of crypto in mainstream. 

I do agree that as things stand of today, the article is bang on.

i think everyone consider here that bitcoin is unique and wonderful currency and we know that bitcoin already change the life of maximum people and bitcoin is the way of income and many jobless people are earning income from bitcoin.

I agree Bitcoin is a unique currency, being the first mover of decentralized blockchain, having a huge community, several store to accept it and even a country that recognize Bitcoin.  Probably OP is thinking about Bitcoin being store of value, and  i also agree with that but it is not the main function of Bitcoin, it is just  a bonus that is packaged to Bitcoin.

They are adopting it because they can see the financial system will be upgraded if they are going to use bitcoin. And for others that are keep on saying bias words against bitcoin they really don't want it to become on the trend. They want to do something bad to noise it out so that others who are currently entering bitcoin will be scared.

I can't see anything can upgrade the financial system by use bitcoin (i.e to be the future payment for everyone).
The possibility of improving the financial system is through the blockchain itself. The blockchain provides the automation of the database usage. It will give a lot of advantage for the financial institution.

But, this time a lot of parties just realized bitcoin as an investment opportunity and no more.

to me i think bitcoin is created on the basis of currency and specially as online currency, but as the users of bitcoin are not yet so more therefore people are using it for trading. and they are getting good profit from trading. i am hopeful that when the users of bitcoin will increase and when it will become possible for the people to use bitcoin as currency in their local shops then they will certainly use bitcoin as currency.

Bitcoin as of right now is more used as a tool for speculation than an actual currency. hopefully as more countries such as Japan approve of bitcoin and more people start using it, bitcoin will develop into the decentralized currency it was designed to be.

Bitcoin is already decentralized but there is a threat that bitcoin can be centralized and will be controlled by the governments in other country that can adopt bitcoin like in Russia that they will accept and adopt bitcoin but they will control and monitor the transactions of bitcoin which is against to the features of bitcoin for being anonymous.

Well that would be bad if government will control bitcoins since i think this coin will be controlled and prices of it will decreased nor increasing slowly and limited so thats why its truly better to let bitcoins handled by nobody so that we can see the price will surge up for more.

We Should let the countries adopt the bitcoin but we should not let them control it since it can kill its ecosystem.

I agree with the OP.
BTC has never been a currency.
It is a commodity like gold, except it is a digital Commodity, with no actual intrinsic value.

It is mainly used for barter like wampum beads that American Indians used to barter with.

I do like BTC but I think I will start trading more in coins with some intrinsic value.

I like to look at new Coins to speculate on and a new one on C-CEX today looked promising.

It is backed by mining and Bullion.
Which I find Very interesting as a trader.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1907361.new#new


UNY on C-Cex

Do you know any of these?

Apart from the Winklevii twins (who might in fact be managing someone else's money, not only their own), I have never heard of investment (hedge) funds involved or even interested in Bitcoin. It is obvious that they cannot officially (legally) invest the money of their clients in Bitcoin (at least, not in the US as it seems to be the case after the rejection of the Bitcoin ETF by the SEC) but, on the other hand, if they are doing that via some gray schemes, how do you in fact know that there are "numerous private funds" trying their hand at managing Bitcoin assets?

Here's my take. I believed that there are entities behind bitcoin, it could be private entities or other hedge fund managers that are buying bitcoin is behalf of wealthy investors. The reason we don't know it that because they tend to work behind and don't want to exposed their wealthy clients. I've been speculating on this since there is a uncovering of market price manipulation by the Chinese. So its more likely that there is also entity or entities getting bitcoins through hedge funds managers or other means that we still don't know, so that they can control the price of bitcoin. This is only my opinion, but I don't have the facts so far to back it up.

Bitcoin is never a currency, not yet at least. To me Bitcoin is A) a competitive payment method comparing Paypal or Alipay, B) a valuable asset/investment tool. Why Bitcoin is matters today is because it's 1000USD/BTC, rather than that Bitcoin claims to be a currency. :)

 

True, bitcoin is not a currency. But bitcoin is more useful than currency, in terms of transactions or investments, bitcoin gives more value to its users.

So you basically don't know

Some private money managers (read not registered as money managers at all) could in fact be trying their luck with Bitcoin (personally, I have no doubts about that), but how that would be different from just wealthy people doing the same on their own? The question is about funds which are managing money of many thousands of investors, and this is a completely different story, since such funds are strictly monitored by supervising and controlling government agencies. Apart from that, they all have an investment policy which determines in which assets the fund managers are allowed to invest the money of their clients, and thus investing in Bitcoin might not (or rather should not) be an option for these funds (since Bitcoin is likely not allowed to be invested in)

That's deep. But without the facts to back it up we cannot do something to make others believe.
Me though, also in deep thoughts had the same speculation.
This people are just the faces of those who are really behind those companies.
Still we only have the speculation but I believe you.

Bitcoin is a unique thing so we don't need to waste our time in comparing it to any local currency, because they have a big difference physically and value aspect. With bitcoin we can use it everywhere, we can transfer it online even at different country with same value, but with money we need to convert it first to a local money, and it takes time to remit/transfer money abroad.

Bitcoin is being used mainstream in other countries, the USA gov has the most to lose from cryptocurrencie adoptation, due to the fact that they alley rely on the dollar to keep things in motion, this is going to be the biggest leap for the US in ages, they will try to create there own coin but it will be regulated and monitered and taxed and it simply won't solve there problem because nobody will use it, bitcoin is a good thing and so is block chain technology, now we small people can earn money investing in company startups like the ZR coin backed by 1kg of zarconium for everycoin you purchase, the ico starts in thirty days, starting at 1.40 a coin, and 1 kg of zarconium sells for 50 to 100 dollars depending on size of grain and purity, it's used in the dental industry, it has many uses, this will be good because now instead of using banks for start up and paying back heavy % , or investors that want part ownership, then advancing to the stock exchange for growth companies will cut out banks and stocks and use block chain tech to get investors like us to get them going.

It is much better to say a diffrent currency because if we will look closely to the comaprison of bitcoin and fiat, both of the variable have a difference to each other. I can distiguish bitcoin a better currency because it is a crpto currency where it makes transaction easy and reliable. As you said it is an intrument for storing. But in fact it has a value which is always dependent on the demand or the scale of support of the community. Which means it value is changing so it is bettee for investment and trading.

IMO, BTC is a currency, an asset, and a payment method. Therefore, it needs to be analyzed by this threefold view. For now, the more preeminent side of it is the "stock" or asset side of it, as a token of value that is increasing in price because of the rising demand. But we can't forget the other two if we want to see BTC achieving its full potential.

Thanks for making it clearer, they are going to get the idea of bitcoin has and that is with blockchain technology. But for those people that are realizing bitcoin is not just only an investment but they also realize that it is a good way to manage different transactions for avoiding those high fees that are being charged by the popular payment methods.

I agree. That article just a FUD. They just post that topic because they are not believing on BTC and don't want to accept it as currency, But in reality, BTC is a real currency since it is used to buy some good and it have a value in terms of fiat. It can be also used to credit card so why it is not considered as currency?

This is why a bitcoin ETF is so important. If the SEC approves of a BTC ETF, then there will be a dramatic increase in demand for bitcoin as more and more investment funds are allowed to buy bitcoins.

I certainly agree that the price will shoot up quite nicely

But I don't think that it will shoot up specifically because there will be a great demand for bitcoins due to money being poured into Bitcoin by investment funds or just wealthy individual investors. The price surge will be primarily thanks to the hype and hysteria that will arise and reach unprecedented levels due to this approval as such (if it is ever going to happen in the first place). Many wealthy investors can invest in bitcoins directly, and if they haven't done so already (apart from a few random dudes like the Winklevii twins), there is no reason to think that investment funds, which have stricter investment policies overall, are going to invest in Bitcoin at all

I think it's great bitcoin, though many people assume bitcoin is not a currency. But bitcoin can be used as a transaction tool. And today many countries use bitcoins for payment. Yes indeed bitcoin is a currency that is not in the form of a real. But very high investment values, making a lot of investos for investment in bitcoin. This is the same as the common currency in use for trading exchanges. I think bitcoin is a future way of transaction that will be used in many countries.

But bitcoins are still not currency. No government will allow it. Even Japan doesn't recognize bitcoins as currency. They classify it as assets and not currency. There is a world of a difference if you classify something as cash or property or assets or whatever. At least legally that is. But regardless, bitcoins are indeed useful and it will be bigger in the near future.

Bitcoin is not nowadays used a s a currency.most of the people don't like to use it as a currency because of its high increase in price.They all prefer to use it as a stock which would give them high returns in future.Satoshi created bitcoin as a decentralized currency and not as a commodity but nowadays bitcoin is no more a currency.

That's true. I second your thought that Bitcoin was not created as an investment rather its main purpose was to serve as a digital currency but a drastic increase in its value over the last few years has diminished its used as a currency.

Currently people are highly attracted towards Bitcoins in order to make their dreams come true and fulfill their basic needs.

Are you sure about Japan?

As far as I know, they made Bitcoin equal to other currencies such the Euro or the US dollar, and with it you can pay for goods and services (provided the merchants are willing to accept it as a means of payment, of course). It is basically the same with Bitcoin in Europe when it is considered as just another currency (if my memory serves me right). It seems like you are implicitly referring to Bitcoin as legal tender here, not as a currency in its own right. These are similar but nevertheless different things

I think BTC will be like Rembrandt paintings in a while. Because it will be rare (all holders will be totally drunk or have they paperback private keys lost) and also BTC will be authentic enough (1st cryptocurrency in the world).

Bitcoin is not just for transactions. But for investment for you to gain profit. If you only use bitcoin for a transaction to buy or sell something. If you use that way then your bitcoin will run out to make a transaction. But if you use bitcoin for investment then you will get many benefits in the future

For me, yes bitcoin is just an investment. But it is somehow called a cryptocurrency where in it is a internet money. Well you can exchange it to your currency so you can used it. But it is not a currency. I think the government has a right to declare such currency.

That's the fact indeed, the fee of bitcoin is now beyond what people usually call cheap, I always thinking twice before sending my bitcoin elsewhere, making a transaction and use bitcoin as a way to pay is not so convenient, the time needed to have 1 confirmation and the fee it's required is just not really "usable".
Maybe the price increase of bitcoin really give many people happiness but not for those who just use it for making a transaction and way to pay something.

That's true, bitcoin looks like an  asset or share that we have and it keeps increasing it's value when everything is going great, and if there is some problem the price just decreases. We can compare it to a company who is developing quite well now

You may be right, but then what this company produces? Where will the money for its existence? Any investment should stimulate the production. Now bitcoin is more like a pyramid in which people are constantly investing money with the goal of getting rich.

Bitcoin is a pyramid scheme right now

Just like any other purely speculative asset is in general. That said, Bitcoin still has at least some promise beyond that of speculation. I refer to Bitcoin use as a payment system, though it seems that nowadays there are a lot better payment systems based on cryptocurrencies out there. Still, it could be said that this company (I guess it should rather be called a foundation) makes payments possible, so it works pretty much like PayPal and other similar payment system or processor (though it uses its own tokens instead of dollars or whatever)

Bitcoin is not a pyramid scheme.

Bitcoin´s use case is savings! People finally have the option to invest in an appreciating asset without having to worry
about some central bank expanding the money supply or (sometimes politically motivated) other forces, which reduce
the purchasing power of their savings.

And what is it then?

Most people are involved in Bitcoin looking exclusively for profits ("buy low sell high"). This is the primary use case for Bitcoin as it has been for years before and will likely remain that for many years to come. The appreciating asset you refer to is appreciating only because more bitcoins are bought than sold over time, there is no other way around it. And the returns that people earn when they sell the coins for profit are coming from other people's money spent on buying these bitcoins. There is no other way around that either

i think that the only difference is that fiat is physical currency while bitcoin is a digital currency, but currently people do not have the facilities to use it as currency but in future we can expect that bitcoin will be use as currency when bitcoin will become so much popular in local shops and shopkeepers will start accepting bitcoin as currency for shopping.

If you consider that a currency is a system of money in general use in a particular country, then I think bitcoin is a store of value,

The circumstance that bitcoin is not a legal payment method in any country of this world also confirms my thought.

Exactly and even if there are very few merchants out there who are accepting Bitcoin at the moment, we are growing with a sustainable growth rate. Apart from the speculators, even normal people are showing interest in this technology which is the strength of a new (the core) aspect of Bitcoin. However, there is a tremendous number of people who are using fiat currencies in digital form so I don't think Bitcoin is different at that point (except - authority, control and system) so it should not be the subject of confusion when it comes to the topic of currency.

With such a pretty high price for a bitcoin, many consider it an investment, but for me it's a new generation currency with which you can earn and make purchases.

Bitcoin is ever green currency. It will still live .Today price of bitcoin is crossed 4000$.Which shows bitcoin will live ever.Many use bitcoin for their investment rather than a gold now a days.So just the price is keep on increasing .Its the right time to inverse your money on bitcoin.

The fact is my goverment still not realize the power of bitcoin otherwise many country start to accept bitcoin as well without any doubt
Bitcoin value reach $ 4000 means that more country have believe on bitcoin power for better future especially for transaction purpose

Indeed, it is, but I am more likely to be in a 50/50 case, wherein in no doubt that I see bitcoin as a future of money, that it is somewhat the new era's currency, yet it is also an investment, as its price getting bigger everyday, we should try investing and soon we'll have a profit to what we've invested.

It varies between the users as well based on the key role for which they use bitcoin. Large volume of fiat backing people prefer bitcoin as an large volume storage token. Few people who have got into with plans of being rich continuously invest into bitcoin periodically. Other than this small communities were found around the globe has been into bitcoin in one or the other way.

Yes, it is a great as an investment than as a currency. The large number of investors is treating bitcoins as mainstream investment. Bitcoins increasing value is making them the apple of investors’ eyes. I personally feel that it is not really risky investing into bitcoins and imagining about the luxurious future.

It's a new generation of currency and it will always be one of the best investments. I don't know why they keep on telling that bitcoin is no longer a currency or bitcoin is dead already. Seriously, we are seeing on how did bitcoin made a massive pump and it keeps on growing after these times.

yes there is no doubt that bitcoin is evergreen currency and hope that it will remain as evergreen for ever.

actually in present time bitcoin is not as such popular, i think that with the passage of time when bitcoin will become popular the people will start accepting bitcoin. in fact still mot more that 2% people are using bitcoin but it is a good news that its users are increasing continuously and its users will increase gradually.

Yeah I think with soaring bitcoin prices and seeing the price changes are very fluctuating bitcoin. Many users do not consider bitcoin as a currency but assume that bitcoin is an investment commodity. The proof is currently very few users who use bitcoin as currency

I agree with you, with bitcoin prices so high that nowadays almost users rarely make payment transactions using bitcoin, but using bitcoin for business purposes such as trade and investment. It is clear that the role of bitcoin not as means of payment transactions is very valuable asset and has high value.

Yeah, these days we can find an increased use of bitcoin for investment, holding for future and for high volume transactions that banks won't process with, due to the taxes. Can't deny it to be no longer a currency, because different users have different ways of thinking.

I think if bitcoin can be spent in modern market or retail using cashier, my question is when bitcoin price is too high, how much does transaction fees when we buy goods under $ 10?

In my opinion, bitcoin will be the special currency of the elite in the future, and not the prospect of paying for the lower middle class, from an investment perspective, we have made bitcoin skyrocket, so the bitcoin assumption is no longer currency is wrong.

Yes, if I am not wrong then the number of people who are using Bitcoins is less than 1% of world's population so there is tremendous scope for the growth.

These things are inter-related so when there is media coverage about Bitcoin, people tend to buy some Bitcoins and when there is a mass adoption the price rises which again grabs media attention. Talking about merchants, I am expecting to spoon feed from the Bitcoin exchanges when merchants don't have any idea in initial days.

Here is a recent example: Indian Bitcoin Hotspot Bangalore Sees 50+ Merchants Added This Month (https://news.bitcoin.com/indian-bitcoin-hotspot-bangalore-50-new-merchants/).

There are a lot of way to do just that

First, both the merchant and the buyer can use the same web wallet (say, Coinbase), and in this case transactions are not only free of charge but also instantaneous. In fact, this is one of the ways which many retail merchants accepting Bitcoin use. Another option is to use a Bitcoin payment card with which your payment doesn't need to wait for confirmation either. Regarding the other point you make, that Bitcoin is going to turn into a sort of elitist currency, this is unlikely since it will sooner stop being a currency at all provided it were such in the first place (well, at least, to a degree)

Holding them in a long term was really a good methods that we need to do it now. So it is impossible that bitcoin now is not a currency, especially the the price value now was 4200$ which shows that it is a currency that can be use in many ways.

Bitcoin is like an investment though. I'm sure many people look at bitcoin because the price of bitcoin increasing day by day, especially right now. Actually bitcoin is still currency because many people still using it for a payment, trading, gambling, buying/selling and many else. It's like a real money.

Overall, bitcoin is a tool because it can be a money or currency and it can be also an investment which can provide as an asset which gives profits to our pocket and enjoy the life of having an asset for long term. Bitcoin is always a tool and it will not have an exact description because bitcoin is suited for the needs of an investor and also for an average person who will treat it as a money.

I completely agree with this point.
since it has been added double or treble price value so that it has been considered as a saving and investment purpose. day by day Bitcoin is becoming a profitable platform and people are making a profit through this system. usually, people prefer to use the most profitable and accepted system. day by day Bitcoin is becoming an accepted platform whole around the world. so it is considered a business platform rather than a currency.

What? Are you making a fool out of yourselves? Bitcoin cannot be the "ultimate tech stock" or even be counted as a stock. A stock is some kind of share of a company, Bitcoin on the other hand is not a company but a currency. Also shares of stocks issues dividends frequently which we don't see on Bitcoin and yes Bitcoin Cash is not counted as a dividend because it is a one time thing and is also counted as an Altcoin. Yes Bitcoin can be counted as an investment but will never be counted as a stock in my own personal view.

no it is still a currency what defines a currency it is the money that used many people in buying things in life the one that they use is currency right, currency is not like hard money it can also virtual currency and that is bitcoin.

Technically, in a narrow sense of the word, you are right

Bitcoin is not a stock, but conceptually you can think of money (I refer to fiat currencies here, say, the US dollar) as a stock of a whole nation. By acquiring some dollars (or whatever), you receive a right to claim some part of the wealth that the nation created. Indeed, fiat currencies don't pay dividends, in fact, they even lose value over time due to inflation, but not all companies are growing either (some even go bust just like some currencies, say, the proverbial Zimbabwean dollar, hyperinflate and die off eventually). And the loss of purchasing power can be offset by acquiring more of the money "stock"

bitcoin is created on the name of currency and therefore i can say that bitcoin is still a currency and will remain as currency for ever. in fact some people are already using bitcoin as currency, even in some place people are using in locals shops therefore no doubt that bitcoin is a currency.

It's supported by any currency as there is no restriction whatever legal currency you have as long as one who trades
his bitcoin will accept your money. It gives us freedom and no country discrimination as we can do transaction anytime we what
for whatever purpose we like.

Popularization of digital currency can be achieved if bitcoin is not used as a currency. Although it has the same feature of shares and commodities like gold but the truth remains if bitcoin was not to be used as a currency the circulation and acceptance would have decrease significantly as compared to what it is now.

I agree on some but it still depends on the users' perspectives. as For me i can call this as an investment and also a currency. It is risky to have bitcoin as a currency because of it's volatility, and as a crypto-digital currency it can be used for some of the shops online that accepts bitcoin. I just hope, there is a standardized description on bitcoin, whether it a stock/investment or a currency.

I have to agree with this. Even though Bitcoin has it's own fluctuating rates, it is still far incomparable with the currencies of each country has. Because if you look at it, it is just there for the sake to have a "Digital Currency". But the real use of it is as an investment that goes up and down, like stocks. Therefore, in my opinion, it is better to describe it as an investment similar with stocks. 

Yes, Bitcoin is no more a currency at all. day by day it has been considered as a profitable business sector. though Bitcoin has some uncertain price value it has produced on an average 300% price. for me, it is as like as share market. day by day it is becoming a popular currency at the whole around the world. I think Bitcoin is using for the purpose of saving and investment rather than any other purpose so that Bitcoin can be considered not only a currency but also something special.

I am really wondering what is going to happen when bitcoin is no longer used as payment.
What will happen to companies like bitpay?
And will the shops stop accepting bitcoin when nobody uses it?
How would such a scenarios influence the price of bitcoin?

Bitcoin is an investment. A stock or an asset class/commodity can be debated, although it doesn't much matter. Bitcoin is a store of value not a medium of exchange.

Although bitcoin is decentralized, uncensorable and distributed in nature, it is not anonymous. In fact, the decentralized and open ledger of bitcoin allows anyone within the network to transparently access transactions through blockchain explorer platforms.
It is important to acknowledge that bitcoin has significantly evolved since 2010, back when the cryptocurrency’s main use case was to finance ransomware distributors and online criminals. Bitcoin has become a safe haven asset and currency for large-scale institutional, retail and professional investors, as well as casual users across the globe.

Yes I get your point that it is more of an investment now instead of a currency. But that does not make it a stock. It it may not be a typical or regular currency but it is still a cryptocurrency or easier to be considerd as digital currency.

You have to remember that although Bitcoin is being used more of as an investment rather than for transactions, the regular or fiat currencies are also for investments. Anything witu volatile rates can be an investment and actually forex trading is more volatile and risky than stock trading.

I agree, but it's the fault of the people who bought it seeking profits and not real usages. I mean, I'm not sure if it's a "fault", but having a virtual "thing" that has actually no usage other then people speculating on the exchanges is a very risky situation. There is no real demand for bitcoin, as for something to be used for anonymously made transactions, there is that fake demand for bitcoin, because it is still raising and by buying it you can expect some profits. The sole fact, that so many people on that forum post constantly only about holding it and waiting as it's price will grow is very harming for bitcoin as a currency. Because what is the point of a currency, that no one wants to use? People seems like they are afraid to pay in bitcoin, because it may be worth more in the future, so they only keep it.

The basic use of bitcoin is forgotten by everyone, everyone is using it for sake of making money and no one is using it as money it is confined to be known as investment rather than digital form of money and this is alarming situation satoshi didn’t created it for making profit he makes it for the user reliability one can use it everywhere he goes but here story is different it is money making business now.

But it is not actually currency, that is the problem. Since people are still trying to figure out what bitcoins are, it is still unclear how it should actually be used. Most of the time people are just buying bitcoins for purposes of speculative investments. What is happening right now is not really what satoshi intended to do with bitcoins. Generally what he wanted is that it should be used similar to how we use fiat today. So that means, we should be trading bitcoins to pay each other off and not really invest hold and buy low and sell high and all that trading non-sense.

It's hard to predict the movement of bitcoin, but I know that this coin will be run as currencies. In terms of exchange in any side of crypto currency world, bitcoin was always used and I believe that in the end bitcoin will still considered as currency in digital world.

Can be said bitcoin is a commodity, if the currency of course there must be a country or a certain party who can control the full bitcoin as happened with regular money which is fully controlled by the central bank.

What is the difference between currency and bitcoin? I think it makes no difference so that it can be said bitcoin is money because what can be done with money can also be done with bitcoin, but from the other side bitcoin is better because the price is increasing.

a currency is a generally accepted medium of exchange, in my opinion bitcoin meets that criteria although a it is also said that a currency should be backed by a government. Many countries are regulating bitcoin although they don't show their support on it except Japan who has fully accepted bitcoin and is currently testing it. So the conclusion is for now its in between a currency and not

I guess there's no such big difference between the two but these two are important in our daily living now. Why? Because with these two how can we survive without money in our pocket. At first I could say that bitcoin is a currency at the same time because it has a total package of currencies involved so we should be confused of these two for they are both profitable and useful in the world of cryptocurrency. But we can't say that bitcoin is no longer a currency it is still and don't change that.

For me Bitcoin is not yet a currency. Government will decide or the Federal reserve I think that will decide on what will be the acceptable currency. Though the purpose of Bitcoin is to become the first digital currency, but what it is right now is an asset like a commodity.

The concept of bitcoin has changed a lot from the initial stages as it was meant to be a currency with literally zero transaction charges but things have changed considerably from it and now it is a store of value rather than a currency that can the transferred easily at a cheap rate.With the implementation of lightening networks i think we will get back to normal.

not pounds or euro, currency Internet again rampant.
Previously, CEO of Bitcoin explains bitcoin like a digital gold offering two options as an investment and payment tool. However, this bitcoin is not exactly said to be a means of payment. That's because people have not been able to accept bitcoin as payment and unstable.

He explains, the tendency of bitcoin exchange rate is stronger than down. That's because the amount of bitcoin is limited. Total circulation in global, bitcoin only 12.2 million. When looking at the exchange rate in Bitcoin, the buys of coin rate reached 10,682,100 and the selling rate is 9,571,000.

For me bitcoin shall we called a currency also because it can be convertible to cash paper or money. Bitcoin is now a secondary medium of exchange.  But im wondering of some reasons behind that bitcoin is now no longer a currency. Being a new of these  industry ive been doubt of what is really the thruth ot this. But thinking possitively bitcoin is an asset that helps finacial needs.

For me bitcoin is a negotiable instrument that access by  many people which the real purpose is to earn money. It is a profitable instrument also which somebody invested their money which the outcome is to gain more compare to any kind of businesses.

I agree with you. I realize that bitcoin is a very useful asset or techno stock that a businessman needs. The daily improvement of technology leads to the daily increase in demand in bitcoin.

I think Bitcoin is not a currency but a payment instrument like Paypal and Western Union. So Bitcoin can be transferred with blockchain technology. Bitcoin is not a fiat currency but a digital payment system.

Much more a store of value in theory and a highly speculative asset in practice right now i guess. As transaction methods lighter currencies as lumen or even litecoin are more practical.

I didn't use bitcoin as a currency, so it was never a currency for me, but was a valuable asset