Bitcoin Forum

I am very confusing when people and media use different words to describe about Bitcoin.

They can use words like
Virtual currency
Digital currency
Cryptocurrency
Electronic cash

I am very confusing with words like "virtual currency" but I don't know what is a best word to use to say about Bitcoin.

In whitepaper, it is "A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash" but it is a long phrase.

https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

(Probably not technical support btw)
That's really a matter of perspective. At this point we know a few things for certain:

1. It is Currency, people trade it for other currencies all the time

2. Digital Cash was coined by people like David Chaum before bitcoin and was used to describe many implementations of currency that utilzed cryptography. In Chaums case it was focused on blind signatures mainly (But suffered from centralization).

3. It is both 'Virtual' and 'Electronic' because it occupies cyber space not physical space per-say (but it does rely on physical constraints mainly for security: https://bitcoin.sipa.be/)

Ultimately naming something is just a bi-product of such a thing existing. The details for bitcoin are utterly complex but are generally considered to be sound (https://thesaurus.plus/related/solid/sound hence 'sound money' as it is also called sometimes).

However many people try to affinity scam the truly decentralized nature of Bitcoin and sell you on some other coin that they own a ton of so they can dump at the next opportunity. Don't fall for that. Ethereum for example had a HUGE pre mine which still causes its price to suffer tremendously. Not to mention shares were sold before the launch of the chain (happens on tons of PoS chain too) which is so sketchy and does not represent even cryptographic computational certainty, it just looks like digital fraud to people who are not insiders like me.

Magic internet money (https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/111ykea/magic_internet_money/) :)

On a more serious note: all of the terms you mentioned work just fine. There's more than one way to describe Bitcoin.

What is virtual currency? According to Wikipedia:


Which means bitcoin is a virtual currency.

Bitcoin, altcoins, CBDCs, traditional fiat that are transferred electronically with the use of bank apps, master card, visa card transfer and the likes are all digital currencies because they can be transferred digitally or electronically. But those, like bitcoin are virtual currencies. Which means that CBDCs and others which are centralized and controlled by the government are not virtual currencies but they fall under digital currency category.

Cryptocurrencies are virtual currencies. Virtual currencies are cryptocurrencies.

Digital currency are electronic cash.

According to my explanation, I believe you have known now that bitcoin is an electronic cash, cryptocurrency, virtual currency and also a digital currency.

Yes boss, is the language crack to widen the spread and values of bitcoin but all works in the same direction as said. People can describe it according to what works for them because it expands another aspects of bitcoin as a new technologies to draw more attentions.

Like Facebook, Instagram, tik tok and all. They sounds different but most likely to perform similar functions

virtual, digital, electronic are all synonyms of each other

crypto currency is a form of electronic/digital/virtual currency that uses cryptography to give it an extra layer of security

maybe you're just confuse due to so many banking wallets popping out everywhere specially now that you can easily access internet, and we couldn't blame you for that.

bitcoin can be called like those you've mentioned above but understanding bitcoin is much more complex.

All those words are more or less synonyms of each other, with only slight difference in meaning and they all work fine when describing Bitcoin. Cryptocurrency is more fitting cause it distinguises it to be a covert or encrypted means of transacting unlike Fiat which can be virtual or digital

You would shorten it to a "P2P electronic cash."

This one is the most inaccurate and misleading term to describe a decentralized currency aimed at fixing some major shortcomings of the traditional financial system. While virtuality and particularly a virtual world can well be a good-looking extension of reality, it can't exist on its own without software and people actually "living" inside its environment. Decisions made and actions taken inside a virtual environment can't affect the state of the physical world, which means they only matter for the concrete instance of virtual reality. Virtual currency is also a part of the said virtual system; all economic activities involving virtual currency simply cannot improve the state of the real economy, let alone this currency has no way of becoming a globally-accepted means of payment. People who understand what this term really means can use it to attack bitcoin because virtuality is often associated with frivolousness, childish behavior, and pipe dreams. In their opinion, people who will use such a virtual currency are certainly not capable of making serious decisions, including those regarding the management of the economy.

Don't be confused with all these  words, they all mean the same thing. Cryptocurrency, digital cash e.t.c like you mentioned. Bitcoin can be called these names depends on what you choose to call it but they are similar in meaning as mentioned by forum members above. What I have come to understand is that bitcoin is different from the other cryptocurrency because of its decentralised system but they all fall under this same category.

Maybe if you heard or read it somewhere or anywhere as long as you knew the meaning then its fine. Those are the same when you search for the description and since bitcoin is become famous different people often used other term they are often used to it. So dont be confuse anymore. There is no test on something, if thats been used for an exam maybe it will be based on the closest to the whitepaper term used of course.

All of those, actually it's not a problem anymore on how people address bitcoin as long as it's not all about the "dark net money". If you get to hear and read those negative terms that have been used about bitcoin before, those terms are way much better than it was.
It all sums up with the same definition and you don't have to stress yourself from it as all of those are totally fine and acceptable and way easier to understand no need to be technical depth and use of technical jargons.

Have you taken time by yourself in making research on what bitcoin actually means, quite alright tou could get different definition or interpretation from people and online sources but you can have this conviction that the most talked about one is likely to be accurate in defining what bitcoin is, and i will advise you begin the search from knowing what is cryptocurrency first and the examples of cryptocurrencies we have.

Bitcoin has been regarded by many in different ways and while the others have supplied different answers, I understand your confusion as a newbie. It's your understanding of BTC that can make you give it whatever name that seems fine. Some people regard it as "freedom money",  others see it as a better, preferred option to fiat. So you don't need to harbour confusion, as referring to Electronic cash or virtual currency won't be out of place, especially as it suits your "A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash" phrase.

All of this applies because there are a lot of words to describe Bitcoin because there are so many users coining new words that best describe Bitcoin, I am more comfortable using Cryptocurrency although virtual currency in a real sense is the one that best describes Bitcoin, in layman language the word virtual currency can easily understand by new users, that is based in my experience on how I introduce Bitcoin to my friends and people I recommend Bitcoin.

bitcoin is a digital cryptocurrency. but playing subliminal mindgames the word virtual can subliminally signal a subtle descriptor of fantasy, illusion, not part of the real world

where as digital can be seen/used in the real world

i personally prefer digital cryptocurrency as the buzzword and p2p money as the descriptor of said buzzword

This is simply inaccurate there are a majority of coins that call themselves Cryptocurrency, decentralized, 'use blockchain', etc... And literally one of them is proven to actually be decentralized and that is Bitcoin.

The 2nd on the market is a pre-mined, government & big bank affiliated, centralized operation and you can estimate that pretty much everything lower on the market than that has a slew of similar issues.

It is legitimately financially dangerous to suggest otherwise.

Haha, Magic internet money. :D Undoubtedly, I like this wording, which I will add to my vocabulary of funny phrases.

For me, it is not so important what word to call bitcoin. Virtual, digital or cryptocurrency. I think the fundamental factor is what opportunities this currency allows you to get. But I, perhaps, after LoyceV, will now call Bitcoin magic internet money.  ;)

You can add virtual gold, digital gold, and BTC to the list. All of it is just the same, and it all works to describe bitcoin, it doesn't really matter a lot what are you going to name bitcoin since its all correct but I would pick the Digital currency or Virtual Currency since it was made as a currency that you could use virtually or online. A way to make a transaction online or on the internet.

I think the cryptocurrency name is a little broad because cryptocurrency could also refer to other alternative cryptocurrency like ETH, XRP,, and BNB, etc. The way I look at it is, Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, and all the altcoins as well, so they are all cryptocurrencies. I mean if you compared it to Ethereum that have a different purpose it might become a digital currency as well since you could send it to someone or use it as a payment I suppose but it wasn't its main purpose. I guess people just easily assume its Bitcoin because a lot of people only know about bitcoin and doesn't really know anything about the other cryptocurrencies other there.

Calling them (alts) cryptocurrencies is fine but calling them decentralized is lying

Additionally, all of the names you give to bitcoin are accurate. These are just a few of the names you can give bitcoin.

When journalists publish negative news about Bitcoin, they sometimes call Bitcoin by different names. But in real sense we can call Bitcoin as digital currency or crypto currency. Bitcoin cannot be fully termed a crypto currency as the term crypto currency refers to other coins of crypto currency. That is, we can call Bitcoin as a digital currency. Bitcoin is only a digital currency now but I believe Bitcoin will be a global currency someday. If Bitcoin is converted into a global currency then we can call Bitcoin as a global digital currency.

Bitcoin is digital virtual currency. It can be called smart currency because it can be used in all kinds of successful ways to live in secret ways.It is a cashless electronic currency.It currently used in all social media and will be used smarter in coming days.It is secret in terms of words, but its use is open.We goldsmiths of this coin in real life, change it to whatever suits are it.Calling it magic coin would not be less in fact it can be called by many names.The last currency that can be used in the modern world in a modern or compatible sense is digital currency or Bitcoin.

Unlike paper money, Bitcoin has no physical form. Bitcoin is a digital cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is very valuable digital currency but you can never measure the weight of this currency. No matter how much btc you have in your account, you will never receive those btcs in real form. Although there is no real existence, this digital currency has gained a lot of popularity worldwide. A lot of people are now investing in Bitcoin. There is no real existence, there is no possibility of theft if you have enough security in your account and there are not so many rules like keeping money in the bank, that's why this digital currency is very popular. Just like if you put money in a bank, there is a possibility of losing money due to bank failure, but this is not the case with Bitcoin, that's why Bitcoin is so popular.

All of those terms are accurate in my own opinion but for one, I believe that the electronic cash does not work in my opinion, because in simple terms cash would be referring to physical substance be in note or coin and Bitcoin is not physical, so it would be fine to say electronic Money.

As crypto-currency can also be called digital currency there can be many road to the market so far it's correct and fits in well.

Whatever you choose to call bitcoin  from the above mentioned list is very correct and just as it is listed in the white paper, it is an electronic cash and in general,  it falls under the class of cryptocurrencies which are all digital assets and virtual currencies.
I also think the case usage is dependent  on the case scenario for instance when describing bitcoin  to a first timer, it is best to tell them that bitcoin  is simply either a digital currency or an electronic  money rather than just telling them that bitcoin is cryptocurrency which might seem complicated  for them.

I guess you must  have tasted the bitter side of bitcoin  but they are decentralized and sometimes m, I also have to think they're not actually decentralized and every transaction can still be monitored even for people running exchanges

I was suffering from the same issue bro but then I came to know that the meanings of all these words are the same but slightly different from each other. I am explaining these words in one line as of my knowledge.
1 The currency that occurs only in digital form
2 It is a border term that includes all the terms.
3 The currency that uses cryptography
4 and is designed to be used as an alternative to physical cash.
In terms of bitcoin if you talk about bitcoin in general then I think digital cryptocurrency is good and if you talk about the specific feature of bitcoin then Electronic cash or cryptocurrency is best.
But my opinion is that if you use any terms it does affect the bitcoin so it's upon you to what term you use more.

When it comes to social media, we are prone to receiving varieties of feeds about bitcoin and cryptocurrency, but whenever we come across such, we are not expected to take fast or drastic actions without taking some level of research on them to get verified that they are genuine, the internet is a very large environment where we can easily get contacted of any information misleading if we are unaware of the dangers that could comes in through it, everyone is saying what they feels is acceptable by them without considering if right or wrong, bitcoin will always remain the exact purpose for its creation and nothing will change, this alone is what is right that the people always want with bitcoin.

The word crypto currency is more popular than the other names you mentioned (Virtual currency, digital currency and Electronic cash). The word currency is the most popular name people call it. Many people know Bitcoin as a crypto currency because it can be easily explained than the other ones.

Before I knew about Bitcoin, I knew it as a crypto currency, but when I started coming to this forum I started calling it the virtual currency, electronic cash and the digital currency. But all of them have the same meaning. Some of these things are what people get wrongly. That's why, before being involved in an investment, we should have good information about it so that we won't get confused, while when we come across things about the investment, investment strategy can be smooth when we know about it, mostly when we have good information about almost everything in the investment.

I would either call Bitcoin "digital cash" (my personal favorite) or "digital money".

I don't like any term that uses the word "currency" because that is a fiat construct.

You don't need to be confused if someone or the media describes Bitcoin. They may use words they think are easier for their followers to understand. You can use different words from them so that you can get a better understanding.

Some people even say Bitcoin is digital gold, which is normal. This is all about how people can understand Bitcoin. So you have to be able to understand it.

I knew the word Bitcoin earlier than cryptocurrency or altcoin. I don't know what altcoins are and I consider Litecoin, Dash, and XMR the same as Bitcoin. It's really funny if I remember it ;D

I'm not sure it's totally ok to name it like that in order to just point it out, because some stable coins are backed by gold and are real digital gold, so it can be confusing. In addition it can mislead laymen who can think it's an asset with the same stability as gold which is one of the smallest, while it's an highly volatile asset with one of the highest volatility among commodities and similar assets.

Nothing wrong if you like it, calling Bitcoin as digital cash/currency/money is okay. As long as you don't call as real cash/currency, people won't complain.  ;D

Why you don't like other terms? I think both currency and money are related to fiats as well. It is the usual term we used for fiats. But I think it is no problem to use for Bitcoin, too. Bitcoin is a digital currency that people use for online transactions. The function is almost the same as fiats, so it is okay if people assume Bitcoin as a currency, too.

Yes, maybe that's ok. Maybe they think they already know gold well and use and own it. Gold is available offline while Bitcoin is online, and Bitcoin price now makes them think it is online gold.

But if people could study Bitcoin well, they would change their point of view and would not call Bitcoin digital gold. That's because they already know that Bitcoin is Bitcoin and not digital gold.

Only people who don't know and haven't received information about Bitcoin will use other names. But that's ok because they will also know the truth after they learn it.

Yes. If I find market chatter influencing my Investment decisions too much, I stop following it. what is certain is that Bitcoin shocked the world the most important thing here How does Bitcoin trading work to know and conquer where we get some Bitcoins because Price movements are frequent and easy to change and you can see the swings easily.

All the words you have listed are all fitting when explaining what is bitcoin.  
The these words are connected together to mean same thing.
 You can chose which you feel convenient with it will still be the best.

Read this for more clarification.
A quick introduction to Bitcoin. (https://www.bitcoin.com/get-started/a-quick-introduction-to-bitcoin/#what-is-bitcoin)
 LEARN ME A BITCOIN. (https://learnmeabitcoin.com/)

Cryptocurrency is a digital currency and it can equally be said its a virtual currency, while people describe Cryptocurrency as a digital currency, is that is a decentralized currency which is not centralized, when they use a virtual currency, that means is a currency that you can not touch or feel with your hands but you can see it digits and values,  so since its decentralized currency probably it can not be touched or been manipulate by the government of any nation is it doesn't fall under category or under the control of government, so don't be bothered with those names been given by by bitcoin, just learn and understand and also embrace Cryptocurrency if you wishes.

Security, privacy, safe custody, and transparency are the major aspect of Bitcoin that I welcome solely, Every person wants privacy as far as money and investment is concerned, and although the primary reason for anyone to invest in Bitcoin is the profit, we can not remove all the aforementioned, when your investment is secured and accessible by you, that's when you can be rest assured that you own an investment, despite that it might depreciate or even appreciate as the case may be, frankly speaking, Bitcoin has made it impossible for government or institution to have control over it because of it decentralized nature, I think that alone is a good remark about bitcoin.

OP you, no need to be confused about how people pronounce the name Bitcoin as: virtual, crypto, digital and electronic, All these words have one aim, namely Bitcoin, even though the ways of saying them vary.

For this reason, you need to first understand the meaning of all these words, so that you don't get confused, even though they are easy to find on the internet.
Example:
* meaning  Virtual currency (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_currency%23:~:text%3DVirtual%2520currency%252C%2520or%2520virtual%2520money,of%2520a%2520specific%2520virtual%2520community.&ved=2ahUKEwiAqqKm4qKBAxUk2TgGHYssC78QFnoECA4QBQ&usg=AOvVaw14swZ0JtXY8gaWB-WYoElQ)
* meaning  Digital currency (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/digital-currency%23:~:text%3DA%2520digital%2520currency%2520is%2520a,and%2520notes%2520of%2520traditional%2520currencies.&ved=2ahUKEwiR-5Pc4qKBAxU1UGwGHWPOCDQQFnoECBkQBQ&usg=AOvVaw1CZUYKJWD3i7mSNY_1yn6J)
* meaning  Cryptocurrencies (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.oswego.edu/cts/basics-about-cryptocurrency%23:~:text%3DWhat%2520is%2520cryptocurrency%253F,as%2520a%2520virtual%2520accounting%2520system.&ved=2ahUKEwjlrtWG46KBAxWAbGwGHW9qCDQQFnoECBAQBQ&usg=AOvVaw2_xJYeS1-mZJD8i2rWLM4v)
* meaning  Electronic money (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://finance.ec.europa.eu/consumer-finance-and-payments/payment-services/e-money_en%23:~:text%3DElectronic%2520money%2520(e%252Dmoney),and%2520secure%2520e%252Dmoney%2520services&ved=2ahUKEwjYpMKz46KBAxXfSGwGHdy-DTMQFnoECA4QBQ&usg=AOvVaw1isFQ46f4nOba-dtqBnTvz)

From this source, you can understand these words, why people use Bitcoin for different words, in essence: one Bitcoin.

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So you don't need to be confused anymore when pronouncing the words you mentioned above, other examples in the real world are like people often mentioning the sky.
For example:
The words above literally have one goal, namely the sky, I hope you understand what is meant.

Over the time people choose some words or phrases which is suitable for it  but among others are the ones you've  listed in which people embrace the most. However, over the time it becomes more appealing and popular and is being called with it

I can decide to name it Apex digital currency    :)
It make sense right :)