Bitcoin is no longer a currency

[nara1892]

A currency in the most specific use of the word refers to money in any form. and money is the accepted form to buy something. let's see bitcoin nowadays. people can buy things with bitcoin like t-shirt, jewelry, phone, and other goods. so according to the definition, bitcoin is still currency.

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[Qartersa]

A currency in the most specific use of the word refers to money in any form. and money is the accepted form to buy something. let's see bitcoin nowadays. people can buy things with bitcoin like t-shirt, jewelry, phone, and other goods. so according to the definition, bitcoin is still currency.

Currency as defined in merriam webster "circulation as a medium of exchange." Using black's law, it is defined as "Coined money and such bank-notes or other paper money as are authorized by law and do in fact circulate from hand to hand as the medium of exchange." Well there is no law yet that authorized bitcoin as a medium of exchange yet. But, bitcoin does pass from hand to hand and is a medium of exchange.

[lordquanta]

In a core bitcoin is a digital Currency. However people have made it in to the commodity n investment asset. For me in current form one of power of bitcoin is quick transfer of currency from one end of world to other end of world. Honestly it is so fast given current load on blockchain is high.
This ease and fast transfer makes them ideal for transfer across continents. It would have been really nice if it was less volatile resulting high adoption rate. This would have helped it in becoming as global currency than an asset to keep for long.

Don't you think power of bitcoin is as currency and not as asset?   

[Monnt]

I think this is a truth that bitcoin is not a currency , because the name of the bitcoin to bitcoin digital currency is made by the users of bitcoin .
The reality behind the  bitcoin is , it is just a written data , and it is about impossible to erase without the permission of the owner of bitcoin network .
And here all the bitcoiners have the trust with bitcoin that bitcoin can be use as payment and has value and has limit like the fiat money .
Allover this is just the trust system between the bitcoin to each other for bitcoin value .

No I think bitcoins are still a currency as they are accepted by a number of sites and everything seems to be working like a currency for example we have a wallet for them.

We have market for bitcoins shopping and we are exploring day by day and it is not true to say that it's not a currency though I agree that the structure of bitcoins was not made for it being used as a currency.

[cellard]

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/bitcoin-is-no-longer-a-currency/274859/

An article from The Atlantic magazine - from 2013, way back in 2013 - declaring that bitcoin is not a currency, but "the ultimate tech stock"!

The four years since the article was written has proven that bitcoin is akin to an Amazon or Facebook (stock, not company), and much less "Pets.com". That's a good thing.

I have to agree with them. Every week that passes without a new company in any local metropolitan area deciding to accept bitcoin as currency is a two weeks further away from bitcoin actually being adopted, mainstream, as a currency.

Bitcoin is an investment. A stock or an asset class/commodity can be debated, although it doesn't much matter. Bitcoin is a store of value not a medium of exchange.

What do you think?

The thing is, do currencies by definition have to be stable? If yes, then bitcoin is not a currency, but if the definition of currency does not include the stability of the price, the bitcoin can be a currency.

But I agree, bitcoin is rather ending up a better gold/internet asset somehow.

[deisik]

A currency in the most specific use of the word refers to money in any form. and money is the accepted form to buy something. let's see bitcoin nowadays. people can buy things with bitcoin like t-shirt, jewelry, phone, and other goods. so according to the definition, bitcoin is still currency.

Currency as defined in merriam webster "circulation as a medium of exchange." Using black's law, it is defined as "Coined money and such bank-notes or other paper money as are authorized by law and do in fact circulate from hand to hand as the medium of exchange." Well there is no law yet that authorized bitcoin as a medium of exchange yet. But, bitcoin does pass from hand to hand and is a medium of exchange

The requirement to be authorized by the law refers mainly to legal tender (i.e. something with which you can pay "all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues"), not so much to the concept of money itself. If you ask me, if something is to be considered money it should be used as a means of payment (or exchange, which is basically the same) by a relatively large group of people not closely affiliated with each other. In this manner, Bitcoin can be considered as money too

At least, as long as it is used in this role



That is, as a currency, not as a financial asset

[justdimin]

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/bitcoin-is-no-longer-a-currency/274859/

An article from The Atlantic magazine - from 2013, way back in 2013 - declaring that bitcoin is not a currency, but "the ultimate tech stock"!

The four years since the article was written has proven that bitcoin is akin to an Amazon or Facebook (stock, not company), and much less "Pets.com". That's a good thing.

I have to agree with them. Every week that passes without a new company in any local metropolitan area deciding to accept bitcoin as currency is a two weeks further away from bitcoin actually being adopted, mainstream, as a currency.

Bitcoin is an investment. A stock or an asset class/commodity can be debated, although it doesn't much matter. Bitcoin is a store of value not a medium of exchange.

What do you think?

Indeed though it might be said recently but I was quite sure about this since a long time actually. Because you see bitcoins parts or say shares are limited and hence we buy those parts, wait for the shares to go up and then sell them, don't we all do this ?

Now being bitcoins accepted on many sites it seems like BTC is a currency but it's just because of bitpay that sites accept this asset

[Rinder]

Bitcoin is a currencie as well payment processor, something unique backing some years of crypto world, it can be considered as digital gold, the only thing that bitcoin hasnt is support from the countries, neither they dont wanna to legalize it because they know they need to handle it with care to avoid loose the control over bitcoin.

[BitFinnese]

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/bitcoin-is-no-longer-a-currency/274859/

An article from The Atlantic magazine - from 2013, way back in 2013 - declaring that bitcoin is not a currency, but "the ultimate tech stock"!

The four years since the article was written has proven that bitcoin is akin to an Amazon or Facebook (stock, not company), and much less "Pets.com". That's a good thing.

I have to agree with them. Every week that passes without a new company in any local metropolitan area deciding to accept bitcoin as currency is a two weeks further away from bitcoin actually being adopted, mainstream, as a currency.

Bitcoin is an investment. A stock or an asset class/commodity can be debated, although it doesn't much matter. Bitcoin is a store of value not a medium of exchange.

What do you think?

Indeed though it might be said recently but I was quite sure about this since a long time actually. Because you see bitcoins parts or say shares are limited and hence we buy those parts, wait for the shares to go up and then sell them, don't we all do this ?

Now being bitcoins accepted on many sites it seems like BTC is a currency but it's just because of bitpay that sites accept this asset

Bitcoin is a currency,  the one stated on the link document is a person's perspective on how he view bitcoin.  He is right on his point but wrong in mine and vice versa.  It will be bring am argument but let us just dwell on the definition and feature of Bitcoin so that we can really tell what Bitcoin is according to our interpretation of the those details.

[Slark]

Actually some of the opinions shared by author of that article seem solid. I found especially this snippet interesting:

"Bitcoin isn't a currency. It's a commodity. A currency needs a relatively stable value to function as a medium of exchange.
If it goes up too much, everyone will hoard it. If it goes down too much, nobody will want it."

It is hard to argue with this line of reasoning. What would you say to defend bitcoin's position as a currency against it?

[CyberKuro]

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/bitcoin-is-no-longer-a-currency/274859/

An article from The Atlantic magazine - from 2013, way back in 2013 - declaring that bitcoin is not a currency, but "the ultimate tech stock"!

The four years since the article was written has proven that bitcoin is akin to an Amazon or Facebook (stock, not company), and much less "Pets.com". That's a good thing.

I have to agree with them. Every week that passes without a new company in any local metropolitan area deciding to accept bitcoin as currency is a two weeks further away from bitcoin actually being adopted, mainstream, as a currency.

Bitcoin is an investment. A stock or an asset class/commodity can be debated, although it doesn't much matter. Bitcoin is a store of value not a medium of exchange.

What do you think?

Depending on the viewpoint of each person, they can consider bitcoin as anything (like you had mentioned) but the founder stated bitcoin as a Electronic Cash System in the first place (if I'm right). I assume bitcoin as a digital currency too.
However, some people can't spend bitcoin as a medium of exchange but others actually threat bitcoin as a currency, as a medium of exchange to spend it in daily basis, buy anything that you need. Ask them who lives in Netherlands : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1787488.0

[zeaderza]

Actually some of the opinions shared by author of that article seem solid. I found especially this snippet interesting:

"Bitcoin isn't a currency. It's a commodity. A currency needs a relatively stable value to function as a medium of exchange.
If it goes up too much, everyone will hoard it. If it goes down too much, nobody will want it."

It is hard to argue with this line of reasoning. What would you say to defend bitcoin's position as a currency against it?

It is a characteristic which was included by Satoshi just to attract more people to adopt it (otherwise he would not have limited the supply and there is no need of any halving too ).

Literally every fiat is a commodity, its buying power vary over time. Bitcoin will get stable price after centuries till then it may act as investment instrument after that it will become a pure currency.

[Kevin77]

I agree with the matter, unfortunately. At the moment, people use Bitcoin for profit, at the moment it is not used as currency, but nothing prevents it from being used in the future. Remembering that we are still well at the beginning of the revolution, it is not possible to change everything from day to night, if it is not Bitcoin, another crypto will play this role.

The problem is that if we start using bitcoins as a currency then it is fine but actually no one will hold bitcoins and the price will become very definitive as currency cannot be expected to change with time.

And if this is done then the millions of people who make profit by selling and buying bitcoins at different phases will be denied their profits. Plus why we need another currency ? Maybe let bitcoins a " type of digital currency " as also stated by google

[rickadone]

Yeah, i was realizing if the bitcoin it looks like the company's share. Although bitcoin it's like the massive currency but i like to hold them because it's like i holding the company's share. the value is always increase based on his adoption and demand.

True that and bitcoins are not a currency because currency is something that can be printed or generated more and more depending on the requirement while bitcoins have a fixed amount stated in the beginning and guys have to mine it. It's much more like gold that is still to be mined and the more we save it the more we profit.

Just a more volatile sort of gold that gives earning opportunity because of it's nature of high fluctuations.

[artows21]

You are not really right. This is true that a increasing proportion of people use it as a reserve currency, but as we can see with the flooded blocks, there is still much people using it as a payment commodity.

[xuan87]

actually I agree that bitcoin is not a currency, when we talk about currency there is always a party that controlled it, but most of the people used it for currency and it is acceptable for some user as an exchange tools that makes bitcoin as a currency, and I like all of us treat bitcoin as a currency because it is really efficient to used

[Yakamoto]

Just realize this matter after reading your post, that is a really good point. Bitcoin really is usually used in trading, also used in saving and exchanging it to real money. They are not that usable on transactions that use bitcoin as a currency or payment, yes it might be used sometimes but not all the time.

Bitcoin is moving away from any sort of currency we used to know it as and more into something like a very divisible form of gold, or something that keeps a large portion of its wealth intact. While it would have been viable to transfer a large amount of Bitcoin for something in the past as a transaction, it's looking less and less practical to do that now.

[FlightyPouch]

actually I agree that bitcoin is not a currency, when we talk about currency there is always a party that controlled it, but most of the people used it for currency and it is acceptable for some user as an exchange tools that makes bitcoin as a currency, and I like all of us treat bitcoin as a currency because it is really efficient to used

well that is right though other bitcoin user consider it wrong, there are some countries now that accept bitcoin as a payment and it is really there. Bitcoin has a good transactions it is really reliable and fast, though there are mysterious transactions that we dont know of. And for me it is in the user on how they will treat bitcoin, they are the user so they can use their bitcoin whenever, whatever wherever they want.

[gentlemand]

Most users don't treat it as a currency and never have. Only an honourable few use it as perhaps the original intention. It may well start being used as a currency once it's reached saturation. Something has to be store of value first before the currency aspect kicks in for most.

The very nature of its design discourages a high velocity. Deflation and spending don't go together especially if people believe it's going to keep on rising. I spend it occasionally but if I have crappy fiat to hand then that's going first.

[Ziskinberg]

actually I agree that bitcoin is not a currency, when we talk about currency there is always a party that controlled it, but most of the people used it for currency and it is acceptable for some user as an exchange tools that makes bitcoin as a currency, and I like all of us treat bitcoin as a currency because it is really efficient to used

well that is right though other bitcoin user consider it wrong, there are some countries now that accept bitcoin as a payment and it is really there. Bitcoin has a good transactions it is really reliable and fast, though there are mysterious transactions that we dont know of. And for me it is in the user on how they will treat bitcoin, they are the user so they can use their bitcoin whenever, whatever wherever they want.

Whatever happen in the bitcoin network is already untraceable as we can hind our identify due to anonymous transaction, but since bitcoin is just a payment system and never a currency, we will have to convert our bitcoin to fiat and there, we will have to comply with the rules of the exchange sites and we will have to supply our persona information.  It's fast and cheap but that is the only thing it can give us and never will come a time that we will compete with legal currencies.