[2016-7-30] Bitcoin is currency or a commodity?

[DAOstock]

Bitcoin experts have weighed into a debate regarding the legal status of the cryptocurrency following a ruling by a Florida judge last week.
Florida judge Teresa Pooler dismissed felony charges including money laundering against Michell Espinoza, who had sold bitcoins to an undercover detective.
In the ruling published on July 22, Pooler said bitcoins are not "tangible wealth" because of reasons including the fact they "cannot be hidden under a mattress like cash and gold bars."
"This court is not an expert in economics, however, it is very clear, even to someone with limited knowledge in the area, that bitcoin has a long way to go before it is the equivalent of money," she said.

In August 2013, it was recognized by the German Finance Ministry as a "unit of account", meaning it could be used for tax and trading purposes in the country.

Bitcoin was classed as a commodity in the U.S. in September 2015 by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which started to clamp down on unregistered firms that traded derivatives of the cryptocurrency.

James Lynn, U.K. managing director of blockchain payments start-up Billon Group have interesting opinion:
"I'm still pretty bearish on the long term outlook for bitcoin," he said.
"The underlying tech is a game changer, but the currency still has too many similarities to the Dutch tulip bubble in the 1600s."

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/29/bitcoin-experts-are-having-a-spat-on-whether-its-a-currency-or-a-commodity.html

[Kaneki]

Bitcoin is more than a currency—it is a technology that can do far more than fiat currency,Bitcoin is more than money as we currently know it, and therefore should be given the space it needs to innovate and grow into its rightful place as a new kind of asset class,

[Ned Kelly]

Every jurisdiction is different. Somewhere it's a currency, somewhere it's a commodity, somewhere it's just a pair of 256 bit integers.

[Hazir]

Isn't classifying bitcoin as a commodity is worse than think of it as currency? What I mean is basically commodities are far more susceptible to taxing, and you can't tax 'money' itself.
It will be really unfortunate if USA legislation will follow this greedy path and declare that bitcoin is a commodity. That's why we need serious global regulations...

[European Central Bank]

Isn't classifying bitcoin as a commodity is worse than think of it as currency? What I mean is basically commodities are far more susceptible to taxing, and you can't tax 'money' itself.
It will be really unfortunate if USA legislation will follow this greedy path and declare that bitcoin is a commodity. That's why we need serious global regulations...

quite a few places are treating bitcoin as a foreign currency. foreign currencies are usually taxed in a similar way to commodities. you pay capital gains on any profit you make if it rises against your home currency and you cash it in.

I think it's gonna be a while before taxation/regulation settles down but most places will probably settle on a similar treatment. places like Australia that imposed vat look pretty stupid right now.

[Ned Kelly]

Isn't classifying bitcoin as a commodity is worse than think of it as currency? What I mean is basically commodities are far more susceptible to taxing, and you can't tax 'money' itself.
It will be really unfortunate if USA legislation will follow this greedy path and declare that bitcoin is a commodity. That's why we need serious global regulations...

quite a few places are treating bitcoin as a foreign currency. foreign currencies are usually taxed in a similar way to commodities. you pay capital gains on any profit you make if it rises against your home currency and you cash it in.

I think it's gonna be a while before taxation/regulation settles down but most places will probably settle on a similar treatment. places like Australia that imposed vat look pretty stupid right now.

You nailed it. Difference between currency and commodity is VAT.