Is Bitcoin money?

[xSkylarx]

Bitcoin is something radically new. Nothing like Bitcoin has been possible until now. I would go so far as to consider it sui generis; "in its own class".  This makes it important to understand what Bitcoin actually is before we try to describe it to others.

We're getting a good handle on the code, and of course on Bitcoin's function and utility, but what words should we use to describe Bitcoin itself? There has been some debate in other threads [mostly my doing] over how it is like/not like money, cash, dollars, etc. I'd like to start this thread by focusing on the term "money", and play Devil's avocate by asking for your best arguments that Bitcoin IS money.

My legal dictionary states "In usual and ordinary acceptation it [money] means gold, silver, or paper money, used as circulating medium of exchange, and does not embrace notes, bonds, evidences of debt, or other personal or real estate." [cites omitted]

Wikipedia says "Money is any object that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally, a standard of deferred payment." [cited omitted]

Webster's Online Dictionary defines money as:

• 1. The most common medium of exchange; functions as legal tender; "we tried to collect the money he owed us".
• 2. Wealth reckoned in terms of money; "all his money is in real estate".
• 3. The official currency issued by a government or national bank; "he changed his money into francs".
• 4. A piece of metal, as gold, silver, copper, etc., coined, or stamped, and issued by the sovereign authority as a medium of exchange in financial transactions between citizens and with government; also, any number of such pieces; coin.
• 5. Any written or stamped promise, certificate, or order, as a government note, a bank note, a certificate of deposit, etc., which is payable in standard coined money and is lawfully current in lieu of it; in a comprehensive sense, any currency usually and lawfully employed in buying and selling.
• 6. In general, wealth; property; as, he has much money in land, or in stocks; to make, or lose, money.

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I maintain that per these definitions, Bitcoin cannot possibly be described as "money". And further, I think that those who do describe Bitcoin as "money" are doing this community a disservice.

But that is just my point of view. Are there any that can convincingly argue otherwise, that Bitcoin IS money?

Bitcoin is not money for it doesn't fit the definition of money but we can say that it functions or acts like money. It is a currency without a concrete form that only exist in a cyberworld hence we call it cryptocurrency.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines currency as:
1 a : circulation as a medium of exchange
b : general use, acceptance, or prevalence<a story gaining currency>
c : the quality or state of being current :currentness2 a : something (as coins, treasury notes, and banknotes) that is in circulation as amedium of exchange
b : paper money in circulation
c : a common article for bartering
d : a medium of verbal or intellectualexpression

You'll see that Bitcoin fits to the definition
Hence, we can conclude that Bitcoin is not money but it is a currency (a cryptocurrency to be precise). We may call it a commodity then we can say that Bitcoin is the promoter of the new age of barter trading! A digital or modern kind of bartering!

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[1Referee]

All these facts shows that bitcoin is becoming a real currency and soon we shall have bitcoins and altcoins for everyday usage also. The increase in he market cap for the digital currency shows the future is purely bitcoins.

In order for the average joe to ditch fiat (could also be partly), Bitcoin must be able to offer people a similar to fiat experience when it comes to settling payments and everything around it. Average joe type of people think like this; Why would I buy Bitcoin to spend it on stuff, when I can do that already with fiat? It's a simple way of thinking, but that's exactly how these people are. With Bitcoin you first need to obtain it, where after that you can spend it on things. Why would an average joe type of person take these extra steps?

[posternat]

In my view, basically bitcoin made for earn money and save money and use for money wise. SO i started to use bitcoin, because i want to earn from it, and bitcoin give me other benefits, like using it all over the online world. That's why i don't want to discuss it, Is it money or not.

[TheUltraElite]

Bitcoin is a product that can be traded for good and services. Much the same as tulips, jewels, auto, silver, gold, orange juice, pretty much anything you can consider. But, can we think of it as money?

No, we can't. Bitcoin is a denominated commodity that is electronically tradable. It is not electronic dollars. It is more similar to digital gold or digital wheat for that matter. There are 21 million of them. Each can further be divided into 100,000,000 subsections (8 decimal places). That is 2,100,000,000,000,000 bitcoins, or 2.1 quadrillion pieces.

then can you buy a cup of coffee with a silver? you can buy t-shirt, laptop, house and almost anything with bitcoin. for me as long as it could be used to buy something then it's a money. bitcoin even more than just money, it's a revolutionary money that unusual but become popular nowadays as an investment but also a lot of people used it to shopping onlin , trade online etc.

Yes that is one of the benefits of using bitcoin is you can use it as a secondary money and buy the things that you want online or in the real world if you like to. Bitcoin can be the future of money because the government might make a digital money to use it online and transfer remittances online and that is what bitcoin have.

Bitcoin can be the future currency system in the world. I dont expect governments to accept bitcoin because its harmful to them but even then I think the people using bitcoin know about the advantages it has over fiat currency. Hence bitcoin is used popularly as a currency but more as a trading investment these days due to the rise in prices. People are hopeful of the price of bitcoin and that it will rise in future as well.

[oktana]

Bitcoin is a product that can be traded for good and services. Much the same as tulips, jewels, auto, silver, gold, orange juice, pretty much anything you can consider. But, can we think of it as money?

No, we can't. Bitcoin is a denominated commodity that is electronically tradable. It is not electronic dollars. It is more similar to digital gold or digital wheat for that matter. There are 21 million of them. Each can further be divided into 100,000,000 subsections (8 decimal places). That is 2,100,000,000,000,000 bitcoins, or 2.1 quadrillion pieces.

then can you buy a cup of coffee with a silver? you can buy t-shirt, laptop, house and almost anything with bitcoin. for me as long as it could be used to buy something then it's a money. bitcoin even more than just money, it's a revolutionary money that unusual but become popular nowadays as an investment but also a lot of people used it to shopping onlin , trade online etc.

Yes that is one of the benefits of using bitcoin is you can use it as a secondary money and buy the things that you want online or in the real world if you like to. Bitcoin can be the future of money because the government might make a digital money to use it online and transfer remittances online and that is what bitcoin have.

Bitcoin can be the future currency system in the world. I dont expect governments to accept bitcoin because its harmful to them but even then I think the people using bitcoin know about the advantages it has over fiat currency. Hence bitcoin is used popularly as a currency but more as a trading investment these days due to the rise in prices. People are hopeful of the price of bitcoin and that it will rise in future as well.

Bitcoin is a digital currency whose value will always go up every year, in broad outline we can mention bitcoin as the people's money, because it really isn't controlled by anyone, but I think we don't have to be like this forever, we also need to purchase electronic equipment and daily needs in big supermarket, or pay monthly bills by debit bitcoin. But anyway I think this progress is still needed high argument because I actually have a positive belief in it.

[poetra2501]

In my view, basically bitcoin made for earn money and save money and use for money wise. SO i started to use bitcoin, because i want to earn from it, and bitcoin give me other benefits, like using it all over the online world. That's why i don't want to discuss it, Is it money or not.

If Bitcoin is not money then there won't be people interested. Because money
is something valuable, its value and its system. So I think, Bitcoin is money,
but that's not a official money, because the government has not yet been inaugurated.
Maybe for the future any country will adopting this cryptocurrency as official currency. I very hope that.

[iram3130]

In my view, basically bitcoin made for earn money and save money and use for money wise. SO i started to use bitcoin, because i want to earn from it, and bitcoin give me other benefits, like using it all over the online world. That's why i don't want to discuss it, Is it money or not.

If Bitcoin is not money then there won't be people interested. Because money
is something valuable, its value and its system. So I think, Bitcoin is money,
but that's not a official money, because the government has not yet been inaugurated.
Maybe for the future any country will adopting this cryptocurrency as official currency. I very hope that.

Never keep hope on governments. They need centralized currency which they can have hold of not something which is in independent people's hands.
Anything using which you can buy stuff or let others buy stuff or which is having a value is money. And Bitcoin has huge value.
It's just that there is no physical form to Bitcoin that's why people get confused. Bitcoin is more than money.

[uneng]

In my view, basically bitcoin made for earn money and save money and use for money wise. SO i started to use bitcoin, because i want to earn from it, and bitcoin give me other benefits, like using it all over the online world. That's why i don't want to discuss it, Is it money or not.

If Bitcoin is not money then there won't be people interested. Because money
is something valuable, its value and its system. So I think, Bitcoin is money,
but that's not a official money, because the government has not yet been inaugurated.
Maybe for the future any country will adopting this cryptocurrency as official currency. I very hope that.

Never keep hope on governments. They need centralized currency which they can have hold of not something which is in independent people's hands.
Anything using which you can buy stuff or let others buy stuff or which is having a value is money. And Bitcoin has huge value.
It's just that there is no physical form to Bitcoin that's why people get confused. Bitcoin is more than money.

I agree governments shouldn't adopt bitcoin as official currency, if they do it they would want to control bitcoin and to set new rules for us when using the currency, the fees would be higher as we would need to pay miners + government fees and very probably to have the pseudo anonymously finished.

[PancherBitCoin]

In my view, basically bitcoin made for earn money and save money and use for money wise. SO i started to use bitcoin, because i want to earn from it, and bitcoin give me other benefits, like using it all over the online world. That's why i don't want to discuss it, Is it money or not.

If Bitcoin is not money then there won't be people interested. Because money
is something valuable, its value and its system. So I think, Bitcoin is money,
but that's not a official money, because the government has not yet been inaugurated.
Maybe for the future any country will adopting this cryptocurrency as official currency. I very hope that.

Never keep hope on governments. They need centralized currency which they can have hold of not something which is in independent people's hands.
Anything using which you can buy stuff or let others buy stuff or which is having a value is money. And Bitcoin has huge value.
It's just that there is no physical form to Bitcoin that's why people get confused. Bitcoin is more than money.

First of all, I will state my opinion in the order. For me, bitcoin is interesting as a commodity, because I can make money with it, which I need every day. Although if the opportunity falls, I can spend bitcoin on the network on the goods. I do not think that people can turn their backs on bitcoin only because bitcoin can not be money. People will like bitcoin for saving money, for earnings and for example today, it is to evade taxes with the help of bitcoins. So people will like crypto, but not all. Bitcoin is a currency only for a certain circle of people. And when the Bitcoin government becomes interested, users will lose their freedom and anonymity. That's for sure.

[AngelSky]

In my view, basically bitcoin made for earn money and save money and use for money wise. SO i started to use bitcoin, because i want to earn from it, and bitcoin give me other benefits, like using it all over the online world. That's why i don't want to discuss it, Is it money or not.

You do not want to discuss about bitcoin is the money or not but this thread has been opened to discuss about that only. If it's not fit for the discussion, then soon moderators will remove this thread out to off topic.
Then, you have chose right platform the make money because is the most digitalized way of earning money with simple effort and you can use it payment mode or payment for global transactions with low fees.

[pinkpanther03]

Maybe someday all people around the world will accept bitcoin in real life and become money too.

I don't think it's going to happen as one of bitcoin's strongest features is its anonymity.

I cannot see the reason why people will not accept Bitcoin being anonymous.  As far as I can see it is a good feature so that you will be safe from those people who have bad intention and steal your wealth.  People who do not have much money does not know how anonymity is helpful to keep them safe and hide them from thieves and robbers.  So  with anonymity I think Bitcoin is more likely to be accepted.

Yes correct, that is very much possible! But not on this time season, even how good bitcoin it is if many of them didn't get the real catch of bitcoin they won't accept it.  because they are blinded in the unique features that bitcoin has. But the logic is very simple to understand still the problem is not in us instead it's for others belief.

[BitcoinPC]

In my view, basically bitcoin made for earn money and save money and use for money wise. SO i started to use bitcoin, because i want to earn from it, and bitcoin give me other benefits, like using it all over the online world. That's why i don't want to discuss it, Is it money or not.

You do not want to discuss about bitcoin is the money or not but this thread has been opened to discuss about that only. If it's not fit for the discussion, then soon moderators will remove this thread out to off topic.
Then, you have chose right platform the make money because is the most digitalized way of earning money with simple effort and you can use it payment mode or payment for global transactions with low fees.

Yeah, but i think people don't want to discuss about the confuse-met that bitcoin is money or if bitcoin is not money than what is actually?
But he is right, if bitcoin is money or not, but instead of it, it give us money and help us to earn money. So it doesn't matter for us, because we have a chance to make money from bitcoin.

[Beta-coiner1]

how about it when salt was scarce and people were using it instead of money?
was that money? you you'd call it trading?
because if so, then using money is still trading - you just give value and use it to get commodities.

[Digitalbitcoin]

Not actually.

Bitcoin is basically a commodity already its proved. But still user having bitcoins can use for exchange of good and services which can be get evaluated in money(fiat currency globally) directly. And I think this is the best feature of bitcoin.

We must have to consider bitcoin as commodity because price of bitcoin is going skyrocket and will climb much higher in coming years.

Now its totally depends upon user of bitcoins, that how they wish to use them as commodity or money.

[Ameeta]

BTC is not money. But it's use is same as money. We can purchase anything using bitcoin.

[btcjoin14]

I don't call Bitcoin money because if Bitcoin was money then the Government wouldn't have that much of an issue with integrating it into their Currency list. You don't really see Russia trying to ban ZAR or other Currencies as much as they do with Bitcoin lol.
The only money that I would consider would be a physical item like Gold. Since almost everything revolves around bartering the whole money thing is a poor monopoly.

[KingdomHearts]

BTC is not money. But it's use is same as money. We can purchase anything using bitcoin.

yeah but bitcoin consider a digital money we can buy anything with bitcoin through internet and it very useful and acceptable in anywhere and maximum people are using bitcoin in huge amount.

[bitbob82]

Bitcoin is a product that can be traded for good and services. Much the same as tulips, jewels, auto, silver, gold, orange juice, pretty much anything you can consider. But, can we think of it as money?

No, we can't. Bitcoin is a denominated commodity that is electronically tradable. It is not electronic dollars. It is more similar to digital gold or digital wheat for that matter. There are 21 million of them. Each can further be divided into 100,000,000 subsections (8 decimal places). That is 2,100,000,000,000,000 bitcoins, or 2.1 quadrillion pieces.

then can you buy a cup of coffee with a silver? you can buy t-shirt, laptop, house and almost anything with bitcoin. for me as long as it could be used to buy something then it's a money. bitcoin even more than just money, it's a revolutionary money that unusual but become popular nowadays as an investment but also a lot of people used it to shopping onlin , trade online etc.

Yes that is one of the benefits of using bitcoin is you can use it as a secondary money and buy the things that you want online or in the real world if you like to. Bitcoin can be the future of money because the government might make a digital money to use it online and transfer remittances online and that is what bitcoin have.

Bitcoin can be the future currency system in the world. I dont expect governments to accept bitcoin because its harmful to them but even then I think the people using bitcoin know about the advantages it has over fiat currency. Hence bitcoin is used popularly as a currency but more as a trading investment these days due to the rise in prices. People are hopeful of the price of bitcoin and that it will rise in future as well.

Bitcoin is a digital currency whose value will always go up every year, in broad outline we can mention bitcoin as the people's money, because it really isn't controlled by anyone, but I think we don't have to be like this forever, we also need to purchase electronic equipment and daily needs in big supermarket, or pay monthly bills by debit bitcoin. But anyway I think this progress is still needed high argument because I actually have a positive belief in it.

yes if we study the progress of bitcoin we can conclude that the price of bitcoin is continuously increasing. although some time we ca see a little down fall bu tit is a temporary down fall and very soon the price stat

[erickkyut]

Technically, bitcoin is not a money but some of it's functions is like money. Just like it's function for currency exchange. Bitcoin can be use as a medium of exchange. It can also be use as payment for salary. Bitcoin is now considered as the future money.

[smartbitcoininvestor]

Technically, bitcoin is not a money but some of it's functions is like money. Just like it's function for currency exchange. Bitcoin can be use as a medium of exchange. It can also be use as payment for salary. Bitcoin is now considered as the future money.

I would say that Bitcoin definitely is a form of money, but only if we perceive it that way. It can hold value, store it and transfer it to others. It is indivisible and works universally around the world.

The great thing about BTC is that it is extremely fungible. It can be spread apart into literally hundred millionth's of a Bitcoin which can have many purposes in the future.