Bitcoin is Now Officially Money!

[Carlton Banks]

Who cares what people in offices, or officials, think? If we'd taken that attitude, Bitcoin wouldn't be here at all, it's been officially denounced ad infinitum up to now.

Well it seems as though the merchants worry about this, because if Bitcoin is not a legal tender they are not allowed to accept it.

No, that is not what "legal tender" means. What it does mean is that merchants or individuals are not allowed to refuse legal tender for payment of goods or debts. Anyone using legal tender as a reason not to accept BTC either knows and can't think of a better excuse, or they're just plain ignorant. Merchants can accept anything as payment under legal tender law, as long as the customer agrees too.

I sometimes wonder why some of you ever got involved in Bitcoin in the first place. The whole point was to build an independent system, not a dependent system. If you want someone big and strong to be holding everyone's hand all the time, you're in the wrong place.

[unamis76]

Wow, amazing! So now that someone supposedly known for being an authority of some kind considers Bitcoin money and it starts being money just because of that! Cool. Only on mainstream media...

Another interesting fact is a owner of a website that used Bitcoin says that Bitcoin isn't money! Anything to defend their wrongdoings (that are, at its core, non Bitcoin related...)

Who cares what people in offices, or officials, think? If we'd taken that attitude, Bitcoin wouldn't be here at all, it's been officially denounced ad infinitum up to now.

err... almost everyone?
dude, i agree with you that right now bitcoin investors doesnt care much about that but if we want to see bitcoin been used as a real currency(daily use) we will need these offices/officials.

f*ck the government, f*ck the banks, i dont care about them... but the majority of the population cares so unfortunatelly we will need their support.

but if we allow those officials to decide what bitcoin is and then pigeon hole it into the wrong category. it makes bitcoin no better than fiat.

i personally see bitcoin as an asset currency. which makes it have more possibilities than thinking of it as just money.
anyone can have the freedom of swapping assets without the hurdles of money.

EG
if bitcoin is money. then suddenly people will start to need to declare transactions above $10k value
if bitcoin is money. then suddenly people will start paying tax on it every time its swapped
if bitcoin is money. then suddenly at border control (highway checkpoints/airports) will need to have their trezor's/keepkeys examined and confiscated if over $10k value is hoarded
if bitcoin is money. then suddenly people will start to need pay inheritance tax if you time locked it and gave the private key your child.

then things like identification requirements just to hold bitcoin start becoming a thing.

lets not get excited that some official wants bitcoin to be money. because all they really want is a nice payday in the form of a huge fine/settlement, future tax income etc

The fact that Bitcoin is colloquially classified as "money" doesn't oblige it to follow the same rules as fiat. Bitcoin is money, BUT it doesn't have to be tied to anything else, nor is it equal to the money we have used so far, thus it doesn't have to adhere to the same rules.

[entrepmind23]

"Bitcoin qualifies as money, a federal judge ruled on Monday"


Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-jpmorgan-cyber-bitcoin-idUSKCN11P2DE

This is good news because it means that bitcoin is making progress and it is slowly making a name in the financial sector. Later on,many people will see its value and its advantages compared to banks and then slowly they will adopt bitcoin which means a higher demand. Because bitcoin is only limited it would mean lower supply and higher demand which can lead to higher price and the early adopters of bitcoin will celebrate because they were able to get in when its not that popular yet.

[olubams]

"Bitcoin qualifies as money, a federal judge ruled on Monday"


Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-jpmorgan-cyber-bitcoin-idUSKCN11P2DE

In as much as this is a good development but this is not actually the main reason as one of the fundamental factor for any thing to be money is acceptability in as much as that is established, then it is money so whether the judge says it or not, if its not accepted by the larger community then its not money to them and vice versa

[serjent05]

"Bitcoin qualifies as money, a federal judge ruled on Monday"


Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-jpmorgan-cyber-bitcoin-idUSKCN11P2DE

this is just new york. in another state it is not money. this also goes for nations. in some it is money in other it is not. so my take away is that they are at least seeing bitcoin as something worth talking about. but it will still take some time until we have some kind of set of rules we can rely on.

Yes one state maybe but it is a start of bitcoin being acknowledged as money.  Soon other state will follow.  Then the whole  America, and china and other  countries in other part of the world.  This one state decision will impact bitcoin and can be the start  of bitcoin  being recognized by every country as currency.

[Daneric]

The Judge did a good thing declaring bitcoin as any other money. Given that he declared in one state, I know other states will follow suit and eventually bitcoin will be accepted globally. This will be a good move for the bitcoin enthusiasts.

[krishna1]

lol this doesnot makes actully any sence. a person made it from public use and a countrys government is saying it as a money so basically they want control over this thing and i do not think it is good and bitcoin is bery voilent so what will govwrnment do when he losses his money will it print more money :p

[Carlton Banks]

but if we allow those officials to decide what bitcoin is and then pigeon hole it into the wrong category. it makes bitcoin no better than fiat.

i personally see bitcoin as an asset currency. which makes it have more possibilities than thinking of it as just money.
anyone can have the freedom of swapping assets without the hurdles of money.

EG
if bitcoin is money. then suddenly people will start to need to declare transactions above $10k value
if bitcoin is money. then suddenly people will start paying tax on it every time its swapped
if bitcoin is money. then suddenly at border control (highway checkpoints/airports) will need to have their trezor's/keepkeys examined and confiscated if over $10k value is hoarded
if bitcoin is money. then suddenly people will start to need pay inheritance tax if you time locked it and gave the private key your child.

then things like identification requirements just to hold bitcoin start becoming a thing.

lets not get excited that some official wants bitcoin to be money. because all they really want is a nice payday in the form of a huge fine/settlement, future tax income etc

The fact that Bitcoin is colloquially classified as "money" doesn't oblige it to follow the same rules as fiat. Bitcoin is money, BUT it doesn't have to be tied to anything else, nor is it equal to the money we have used so far, thus it doesn't have to adhere to the same rules.

I don't think Franky was endorsing the treatment of Bitcoin as fiat, so he may be a dangerous idiot most of the time, but he's got the right idea here IMO

[traderethereum]

its a good news for us which play around with bitcoin and i hope there is more country and city which is accept bitcoin as currency and payment and the last thing is there are many store offline and online which available and accept bitcoin as payment.

[hasiramasenju]

even though only New York officially admit bitcoin as money i think that was good move because not all big cities in the world brave such as New York however i think this is won't have any affect for bitcoiners because admitted or not they will still use bitcoin including me

[mobnepal]

Whatever government thinks about bitcoin will not matter after some time. People have already started to realize power of decentralization, anonymity of bitcoin and some have already begin to store their wealth for future. Even government can't stop bitcoin so there will be no choice for them to deny it, so surely they will announce bitcoin as money and way of payment. 

[calkob]

All good news is welcome in bitcoin land, someday it will be classed as money all over the world.  we who use it already know it is money

[Barbut]

This is a big thing, now its NY, tomorrow LA, next year all US. US is modern country, they are first in technology, and cause of that this do not surprise me. Its will be a good example for other countries that plan to recognize bitcoin as official currency.
Franky1 have a logic, yes they will try to limit transactions, tax it maybe, or who knows how they will try to control it. But that is their job, when someone lose coins, everyone advice that man to go to police, well for some kind of protection everyone needs to pay.
We will see now how will NY handle bitcoin, and how government plan to track all bitcoin users. We will also see how the government will categorize bitcoin.

[Robertqueen2]

I consider Bitcoin as money since I have started to use it, as long there are stores where I can buy anything with Bitcoin so it is money, but sure it will has different situation if governments started to accept it, I read before that Germany and Japan have regulated Bitcoin deals with a fee, I hope to read more news like this one in the future.

[richardsNY]

This is a big thing, now its NY, tomorrow LA, next year all US. US is modern country, they are first in technology, and cause of that this do not surprise me. Its will be a good example for other countries that plan to recognize bitcoin as official currency.
Franky1 have a logic, yes they will try to limit transactions, tax it maybe, or who knows how they will try to control it. But that is their job, when someone lose coins, everyone advice that man to go to police, well for some kind of protection everyone needs to pay.
We will see now how will NY handle bitcoin, and how government plan to track all bitcoin users. We will also see how the government will categorize bitcoin.

How is this a big thing? It doesn't change anything for people. Even not when Bitcoin was being considered to be money in every country and continent. The main purpose of this is indeed taxation of your coin holdings, but there basically isn't a logical way for governments to know how much you have in Bitcoin unless you tell them so. At worst they may force exchanges to release information about large players as they are worth all the hassle they eventually might go through as the tax rewards might be high.

[Superways]

before any statement of that bitcoin was already a money from the time when some companies convinced to adopt bitcoin as a payment system for their business after seeing that people are more interested to pay with bitcoin for their online services and for buying digital goods etc.

[Kprawn]

Who cares what people in offices, or officials, think? If we'd taken that attitude, Bitcoin wouldn't be here at all, it's been officially denounced ad infinitum up to now.

Well it seems as though the merchants worry about this, because if Bitcoin is not a legal tender they are not allowed to accept it.

No, that is not what "legal tender" means. What it does mean is that merchants or individuals are not allowed to refuse legal tender for payment of goods or debts. Anyone using legal tender as a reason not to accept BTC either knows and can't think of a better excuse, or they're just plain ignorant. Merchants can accept anything as payment under legal tender law, as long as the customer agrees too.

I sometimes wonder why some of you ever got involved in Bitcoin in the first place. The whole point was to build an independent system, not a dependent system. If you want someone big and strong to be holding everyone's hand all the time, you're in the wrong place.

I never said I support that opinion, I just said I experienced this problem when I asked some merchants for the reason why they do not

want to support or accept Bitcoin. Put yourself in their shoes... would you accept a unknown currency that are not regulated by your

government and then expose your business to legal action or forfeiture or closure of your bank accounts.  

[Conus]

Though I support this happening, I have a feeling that this will be overturned in the higher courts.  The IRS in the USA does not recognize that Bitcoin is money, they see it as an asset.  Because of this there is reason  to appeal this decision which will result in a higher court making the change.  We need the IRS to start to accept that Bitcoin should be a currency.  As soon as this happens, things will change.

[smoothie]

so you need a bitlicense in NewYork for bitcoin businesses but you don't need a USD license to operate a business that holds customer funds?

[beerlover]

so you need a bitlicense in NewYork for bitcoin businesses but you don't need a USD license to operate a business that holds customer funds?

Yes, because bitcoin is not related to USA government in any ways. They need to treat any foreign elements in such a way.
Bitcoin is a money as per recent court statement, but it has nothing to do about licenses as bitcoin is not being issued by US government.