Bitcoin is not a currency

[Flashman]

Clueless can also be helpful, if they write so obviously dumb crap that it gets tossed out... on the other hand, nobody reads the bills they vote on now.

[fenican]

Bitcoin is best viewed as an extremely secure liquid asset that can be transferred, almost instantly, across national boundaries with no fees or tariffs.

That makes it incredibly valuable.

It can also work as a currency but is less valuable in that capacity.

My use of Bitcoin will be as a store of wealth. When I want to buy things, I'll convert small amounts of that store into a fiat currency. Fiat has the advantage that one can execute reversible transactions virtually instantly.

Fiat's main disadvantage is that it may become a poor store of wealth due to the tendency of central banks to print it at will. That dilution, however, is not relevant on the scale of days or weeks so it has no real impact on the effectiveness of fiat as a means to pay bills.

[247poker]

What was the name of that super geek think tank to US Congress? They issued a bitcoin report, in it they compared to btc to the gold standard completely driven by consumers desire to hold it and horde it. So btc is new gold standard that supply/demand controls and fiat is manipulated toilet paper.

[RainbowElement]

I think he meant to say that it's not a US currency.
Hope some day countries will start accepting Bitcoin as an official alternative currency. Would be cool to pay our taxes in XBT.

[darkmule]

I think he meant to say that it's not a US currency.

This is Tom Coburn we're talking about.  I doubt even he knows what he meant to say.