Bitcoin: currency or investment?

[the_poet]

A Senate inquiry has decided that bitcoin is a currency, but a study suggests it is largely bought and sold as an investment. For now, at least, bitcoin is unlikely to keep banking regulators awake at night.

www.smh.com.au/national/bitcoin-currency-or-investment-20150904-gjfap7.html

[MF Doom]

A Senate inquiry has decided that bitcoin is a currency, but a study suggests it is largely bought and sold as an investment. For now, at least, bitcoin is unlikely to keep banking regulators awake at night.

www.smh.com.au/national/bitcoin-currency-or-investment-20150904-gjfap7.html

currently, there doesn;t seem to be any way that btc could be used as a genuine currency.  And, judging by most all commentators here (which is probably a large chunk of btc users) they are here to make a buck with btc, and hoping for another "moon" run.

[Mickeyb]

For Bitcoin to be successful as a currency, scalability problems have to solved. Either that or Bitcoin can only be a niche currency. That's really how I see it. As an investment, Bitcoin works pretty well at the moment.

The only problem is that I don't see that we will take a world by storm if we stay just an investment option. For Bitcoin to succeed, Bitcoin needs to be everything. A currency, an investment, a store of value, remittance, etc..

[ajareselde]

I won't be referring to currency by it's definition, the way i see it : if you can transfer value from person 1 to person 2 , it's a form of currency.
And as far as investment part goes, ofcourse it's an investment as well, since you obviously can both profit and loose on it.

cheers

[zmhtech]

I see it as more of an investment now, mainly because people dont understand it technically and dont understand the concept of it. Most people dont even know what an exe file is, yet were thinking that they can use bitcoin. It needs to become "easier" to use, but look at web wallets, it may be easier but it is less secure. I think over time it could get their, but it is going to take a while.

[Moebius327]

Definitely both currency and an investment at the moment.

[thejaytiesto]

Bitcoin is e-gold that has features of cash too.
I treat it myself as internet or might I say, digital gold. You buy it because you understand the technology behind it, you buy it because you understand for the first time ever scarcity has been designed in a digital way, you buy it because you know in the future its purchasing power will visit moon.
And at the same time, I could get some of it and buy some starbucks coffee (something you will never be able to do with gold and whatnot).

[chennan]

Bitcoin is e-gold that has features of cash too.
I treat it myself as internet or might I say, digital gold. You buy it because you understand the technology behind it, you buy it because you understand for the first time ever scarcity has been designed in a digital way, you buy it because you know in the future its purchasing power will visit moon.


And at the same time, I could get some of it and buy some starbucks coffee (something you will never be able to do with gold and whatnot).

Yeah, that's ver true.. But not only that, I believe we are making strides in seeing how the first btc debit cards are working out, and if I'm not mistaken, they're working pretty nicely. It needs to stay somewhat decentralized, but at the same time banks now and days have to see it as a legit currency that they would accept if btc were to be taken seriously and have the absolute highest purchasing power.

[gentlemand]

I think a lot of people who think they're using it as a currency are actually just using it as a payment rail along the same lines as a debit card. A lot of those spent coins end up back as fiat again.

[oblivi]

Bitcoin is e-gold that has features of cash too.
I treat it myself as internet or might I say, digital gold. You buy it because you understand the technology behind it, you buy it because you understand for the first time ever scarcity has been designed in a digital way, you buy it because you know in the future its purchasing power will visit moon.


And at the same time, I could get some of it and buy some starbucks coffee (something you will never be able to do with gold and whatnot).

Yeah, that's ver true.. But not only that, I believe we are making strides in seeing how the first btc debit cards are working out, and if I'm not mistaken, they're working pretty nicely. It needs to stay somewhat decentralized, but at the same time banks now and days have to see it as a legit currency that they would accept if btc were to be taken seriously and have the absolute highest purchasing power.

In an ideal world Bitcoin would untie itself from fiat. The fact fiat is tied to Bitcoin is slowing down the creative process of Bitcoin's technology development a lot. I wish people would just start accepting BTC everywhere so we don't have to deal with this fiat bullshit anymore. Unfortunately this seems like a pipedream. I will not be using said debit cards tho, I want to stay debt free.

[chennan]

Bitcoin is e-gold that has features of cash too.
I treat it myself as internet or might I say, digital gold. You buy it because you understand the technology behind it, you buy it because you understand for the first time ever scarcity has been designed in a digital way, you buy it because you know in the future its purchasing power will visit moon.


And at the same time, I could get some of it and buy some starbucks coffee (something you will never be able to do with gold and whatnot).

Yeah, that's ver true.. But not only that, I believe we are making strides in seeing how the first btc debit cards are working out, and if I'm not mistaken, they're working pretty nicely. It needs to stay somewhat decentralized, but at the same time banks now and days have to see it as a legit currency that they would accept if btc were to be taken seriously and have the absolute highest purchasing power.

In an ideal world Bitcoin would untie itself from fiat. The fact fiat is tied to Bitcoin is slowing down the creative process of Bitcoin's technology development a lot. I wish people would just start accepting BTC everywhere so we don't have to deal with this fiat bullshit anymore. Unfortunately this seems like a pipedream. I will not be using said debit cards tho, I want to stay debt free.

If you use debit cards, its not like you are going to go into "debt"... you are just using the amount of btc you have in your wallet, just like you would use the amount of money you have in your bank. Now if they would issue btc credit cards, then yeah I would stay away from that because of debt issues.

[jjacob]

I think they should have some metric like total value / total transaction value in a year.
That will give an idea about whether bitcoin is being spent (currency) or held (investment)

[Rude Boy]

Even fiats also used to invest on something. So it is not a currency? What is the use of currency actually? IMO, a currency can also be as an investment isn't it?. So bitcoin is not only the investment but also a currency (but it is not popular yet that's it.

[RGBKey]

Bitcoin is a currency that is currently also an investment. Just like any currency, the rate at which it exchanges for other currencies changes over time, but bitcoin is an investment because of how quickly and drastically it changes.

[futureofbitcoin]

Bitcoin is e-gold that has features of cash too.
I treat it myself as internet or might I say, digital gold. You buy it because you understand the technology behind it, you buy it because you understand for the first time ever scarcity has been designed in a digital way, you buy it because you know in the future its purchasing power will visit moon.


And at the same time, I could get some of it and buy some starbucks coffee (something you will never be able to do with gold and whatnot).

Yeah, that's ver true.. But not only that, I believe we are making strides in seeing how the first btc debit cards are working out, and if I'm not mistaken, they're working pretty nicely. It needs to stay somewhat decentralized, but at the same time banks now and days have to see it as a legit currency that they would accept if btc were to be taken seriously and have the absolute highest purchasing power.

In an ideal world Bitcoin would untie itself from fiat. The fact fiat is tied to Bitcoin is slowing down the creative process of Bitcoin's technology development a lot. I wish people would just start accepting BTC everywhere so we don't have to deal with this fiat bullshit anymore. Unfortunately this seems like a pipedream. I will not be using said debit cards tho, I want to stay debt free.

In an ideal world everyone and their uncles would devote their lives to improving bitcoin. The fact not every single human being and their pet is working to improve bitcoin is slowing down the creative process of bitcoin's technology development a lot.

A true statement, but also a completely useless one. Fiat works currently, a lot better than bitcoin too*. There's no way bitcoin can "untie" itself from fiat.


*For those that go like "OMGWTFRUSAYIN bitcoin PWN0ZRZ fiat", let me ask you this: Which is better, bitcoin or *insert random altcoin here*? You say bitcoin? Well a lot of altcoins are basically bitcoin clones with slight improvements. So doesn't that make them better than bitcoin? No, because bitcoin's network effects far outweigh any potential benefits from the modified altcoins.

Similarly, fiat's network effects FAR FAR FAR outweighs any potential benefit for bitcoins at the moment. And therefore fiat works a lot better than bitcoin, at least currently.

[lemipawa]

it's both currency and investment since we use it to buy online and offline goods and exchange rate goes up and down

[chennan]

Even fiats also used to invest on something. So it is not a currency? What is the use of currency actually? IMO, a currency can also be as an investment isn't it?. So bitcoin is not only the investment but also a currency (but it is not popular yet that's it.

Well if you think about it, fiats such as the USD were first based on the gold standard where it was said that every note the government issued out was to be exchangeable at any time for a certain amount of gold the US held, it was just more convenient to carry paper currency and coins rather than sacks of gold.  Now that the gold standard is gone and now it is just based off trust in the Fed, a whole new game ensues...

Now that people don't really trust the central banks anymore, and also due to the fact that it would be more convenient to carry your currency amount in the form of data on your computer and phones; the evolution of what people consider valuable continues... So going back to the question, it is both because for one it can be called the new form of paper currency which was the new form of gold, and you can also call it an investment because as more and more people enter bitcoin markets, it will always increase the value of bitcoin; and since it's a global currency, the potential of value is infinite... just as long as people put their "trust" into cryptocurrencies. 

[Possum577]

Does it matter?

Bitcoin needs adoption, lots of it. If someone wants to adopt it as a currency, great! If someone wants to adopt it as an investment, wonderful!

It's both right now, anyway, debating a future majority is futile (especially since if people don't adopt it there won't be a future to discuss.)

[Kakmakr]

The broad definition of a currency, means that Bitcoin should be adopted by a huge share of a population, either local or global and be recognized by a government. This is only partially true for Bitcoin as a currency. In time when the price are low, most people hoard the token and it takes on the characteristics of a investment vehicle.

It's the "Chameleon" of currencies.

[coinplus]

Bitcoin has many wonderful feathers, it's a currency as well as investment. Here are the some other interesting facts of bitcoin
1. Payment network (like Paypal), payment element (like USD).
2. Bitcoin can be usual money as well as medium of exchange.
3. Address are anonymous, but transactions are in public ledger.
4. Digitally created, still capped.
5. Modern innovation with property of ancient medium of exchange.

List can be too lengthy if we deeply look into the wonders of bitcoins...