Bitcoin is no longer a currency

[ahmia39]

Bitcoin will remain a currency at least for online entrepreneurs. Or even very possible later bitcoin will be recognized as a means of payment.

[batang_bitcoin]

Bitcoin is more than just a currency. Bitcoin can be used as an investment that provides a better profit than what we previously did. Popularity bitcoin's evidence bitcoin has a bright future.

Those people that are saying that bitcoin is dead and it is no longer a currency are the ones who want to make the others worry about their investment in bitcoin. Definitely bitcoin is more than a currency, it is a all in one currency , investment and remittance payment method.

Well to an extent you are right since the bitcoin price as rose now to all time nearly those who hold the btc have gained significantly. Now those who have sold out have missed this rally and are little suspicious about it and this is making their thinking in this way I suppose.

They can't accept the fact that they are missing a lot of good things with bitcoin. If they are the ones that sold their btc's at early and lower price, it's their problem but they can still cope up because the price of bitcoin will keep on rising. And for those people that really doesn't have something to do, they just want to make bitcoin's image bad.

[Shiroslullaby]

Right now its a currency/ speculative investment.
Fees are getting to the point that its not worth sending micro-transactions (unless you are willing to wait hours/ days)
so its basically for people who already have money to send medium/ large payments, and invest with the hope of increase in price over time.

[omonuyak]

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.

Though bitcoin has a feature of what op describe bitcoin to be such as commodity, store of values and stock like amazon and facebook! seen bitcoin as commodities make bitcoin to losses it fundamental nature of it been decentralized crypto currencies and seen as stock will undermined it values as money.

[jeraldskie11]

At the beginning of bitcoin it is not accepted in our economy as a currency. But they will study the bitcoin that what was the benefits of it in our economy later on bitcoin is accepted as a currency. There are some bitcoin used for criminal transaction because it is anonymous.

[deisik]

It's still a currency, but right now the price was changing really fast. I think better to sell right now your coins and wait for any dumps, if you read the last news we had a lot of issues with lost bitcoins 3 billion bitcoins been wiped. Indeed, we know that anything can happend in this 2 weeks better to buy some fiat money and save them for next invest

I dont think that it was treated still as a currency, when is the last time you paid for something using bitcoin? It is treated now as an asset especially to third worlds that do not have that much information bout the digital currrencies. In my country there are no bitcoin ATMs and there are only few stores that accept bitcoin, which is really dissapointing. So what will you do with your bitcoin when you can't use it to buy something, you save them, and the very good way to earn is to wait for a good price and sell it or convert to real money. It is an asset.

Yes, bitcoin is an asset but this doesn't mean bitcoin is not a currency. I have something for all of you that said bitcoin is not currency. Anything that have values or can be used in making payments or can be transferred digitally are also asset? Therefore, the so call currency you spent in your country is also an asset.

If anything Bitcoin makes an interesting debate on where something of value that is divisible and easily spendable changes from an asset to a currency, or the other way around. There aren't really any good ways to reference the information for something like this since the only instance we've had was gold (and other metal) coins transitioning into bars and the like, but the thought experiment is interesting nonetheless. I've heard that there is a different between currency and money, so where does Bitcoin fit in?

I don't think that this difference makes a lot of sense and relevance

Provided there is any at all. Anyway, it would be of purely scientific or academic interest mostly. Nevertheless, there is still a substantial difference between a genuine currency or money and a financial asset which has almost all required features for the former except the most important one (i.e. universal acceptance as a means of payment and exchange). More specifically, I can point out at least three factors that prevent Bitcoin from turning into a full-fledged currency (i.e. from acquiring universal adoption as a means of payment). First, it is severe volatility, and it is likely the strongest factor. Second, it is long confirmation times which nowadays make it uncompetitive against fiat in any retail or online business which requires instant payments. And third (and likely the weakest factor), it is deflationary nature of Bitcoin, though this is also the most debatable factor among these three factors which prevent Bitcoin from becoming a genuine money

[whizter]

Right now its a currency/ speculative investment.
Fees are getting to the point that its not worth sending micro-transactions (unless you are willing to wait hours/ days)
so its basically for people who already have money to send medium/ large payments, and invest with the hope of increase in price over time.

bitcoin is a currency no doubt about that and hope that it will continue as currency for ever, in face i present time the users of bitcoin are not too much therefore most of the people are using bitcoin for investment only but hope that in future we will be using bitcoin both for investment as well as a currency also.

[ArnoldChippy]

At the beginning of bitcoin it is not accepted in our economy as a currency. But they will study the bitcoin that what was the benefits of it in our economy later on bitcoin is accepted as a currency. There are some bitcoin used for criminal transaction because it is anonymous.

and specially in physical shops the shopkeepers are not ready to accept bitcoin, i think still it will take a lot of time when all the people of the world will start using bitcoin and the all the shops will also accept bitcoin for shopping.

[FasTroy]

At the beginning of bitcoin it is not accepted in our economy as a currency. But they will study the bitcoin that what was the benefits of it in our economy later on bitcoin is accepted as a currency. There are some bitcoin used for criminal transaction because it is anonymous.

You are right, but criminal activity does not mean that bitcoin is not accepted in our economy as a currency, you are right it's anonymously. but also we can use fiat for criminal activity too.
Nowdays, bitcoin are accepted anywhere in the internet not all of them but in a lot of marketplaces. So maybe one day will be accepted in the real world.

[guoyu78]

At the beginning of bitcoin it is not accepted in our economy as a currency. But they will study the bitcoin that what was the benefits of it in our economy later on bitcoin is accepted as a currency. There are some bitcoin used for criminal transaction because it is anonymous.

and specially in physical shops the shopkeepers are not ready to accept bitcoin, i think still it will take a lot of time when all the people of the world will start using bitcoin and the all the shops will also accept bitcoin for shopping.

but i heard that many shopkeepers accepting bitcoin and i hope that bitcoin will be also acceptable in local shop in your country and bitcoin is trusted currency because people easily will accept bitcoin in their shopping center.

[lionheart78]

Bitcoin will remain a currency at least for online entrepreneurs. Or even very possible later bitcoin will be recognized as a means of payment.

I agree bitcoin will always be a currency. Now it is even recognized as mode of payment.  Bitcoin might have another function like store of value or digital gold, but Bitcoin main purpose will always be a currency.  It is bitcoin's strength and purpose.  So definitely anyone who is thinking that bitcoin is no longer a currency needs to check more about Bitcoin and it's current function.

[Zenithar]

At the beginning of bitcoin it is not accepted in our economy as a currency. But they will study the bitcoin that what was the benefits of it in our economy later on bitcoin is accepted as a currency. There are some bitcoin used for criminal transaction because it is anonymous.

and specially in physical shops the shopkeepers are not ready to accept bitcoin, i think still it will take a lot of time when all the people of the world will start using bitcoin and the all the shops will also accept bitcoin for shopping.

but i heard that many shopkeepers accepting bitcoin and i hope that bitcoin will be also acceptable in local shop in your country and bitcoin is trusted currency because people easily will accept bitcoin in their shopping center.

yes in some places for example in Brazil the shopkeepers already accept bitcoin, actually the number of bitcoin users are more there as compare to other places and that is the only reason that even the shopkeepers have good knowledge about bitcoin and therefore they are accepting bitcoin in their shops.

[Sled]

At the beginning of bitcoin it is not accepted in our economy as a currency. But they will study the bitcoin that what was the benefits of it in our economy later on bitcoin is accepted as a currency. There are some bitcoin used for criminal transaction because it is anonymous.

and specially in physical shops the shopkeepers are not ready to accept bitcoin, i think still it will take a lot of time when all the people of the world will start using bitcoin and the all the shops will also accept bitcoin for shopping.

but i heard that many shopkeepers accepting bitcoin and i hope that bitcoin will be also acceptable in local shop in your country and bitcoin is trusted currency because people easily will accept bitcoin in their shopping center.

yes in some places for example in Brazil the shopkeepers already accept bitcoin, actually the number of bitcoin users are more there as compare to other places and that is the only reason that even the shopkeepers have good knowledge about bitcoin and therefore they are accepting bitcoin in their shops.

That is right, one of the early adopters of bitcoin is the country of Brazil and i think they have a lot of good results for using bitcoin as their another kind of payment system and the owners of the shops are already earned a lot of money like now that the price of bitcoin is very high and they almost double or triple the value of their bitcoin right now.

[Yakamoto]

At the beginning of bitcoin it is not accepted in our economy as a currency. But they will study the bitcoin that what was the benefits of it in our economy later on bitcoin is accepted as a currency. There are some bitcoin used for criminal transaction because it is anonymous.

and specially in physical shops the shopkeepers are not ready to accept bitcoin, i think still it will take a lot of time when all the people of the world will start using bitcoin and the all the shops will also accept bitcoin for shopping.

but i heard that many shopkeepers accepting bitcoin and i hope that bitcoin will be also acceptable in local shop in your country and bitcoin is trusted currency because people easily will accept bitcoin in their shopping center.

yes in some places for example in Brazil the shopkeepers already accept bitcoin, actually the number of bitcoin users are more there as compare to other places and that is the only reason that even the shopkeepers have good knowledge about bitcoin and therefore they are accepting bitcoin in their shops.

That is right, one of the early adopters of bitcoin is the country of Brazil and i think they have a lot of good results for using bitcoin as their another kind of payment system and the owners of the shops are already earned a lot of money like now that the price of bitcoin is very high and they almost double or triple the value of their bitcoin right now.

It's more hit-and-miss for timing when it comes to shops and keeping their Bitcoin stored, it really depends on the individual shop but there are some that convert to fiat within a day, others may hold for a week or month, but it is rarely ever kept for a long time as Bitcoin and shops typically don't act as major traders on exchanges with much influence, they're more often just places wanting to get their work done and make sure they can still work the next day.

I may be wrong, but that's the trend I observed.

[Viviyang]

At the beginning of bitcoin it is not accepted in our economy as a currency. But they will study the bitcoin that what was the benefits of it in our economy later on bitcoin is accepted as a currency. There are some bitcoin used for criminal transaction because it is anonymous.

and specially in physical shops the shopkeepers are not ready to accept bitcoin, i think still it will take a lot of time when all the people of the world will start using bitcoin and the all the shops will also accept bitcoin for shopping.

but i heard that many shopkeepers accepting bitcoin and i hope that bitcoin will be also acceptable in local shop in your country and bitcoin is trusted currency because people easily will accept bitcoin in their shopping center.

yes in some places for example in Brazil the shopkeepers already accept bitcoin, actually the number of bitcoin users are more there as compare to other places and that is the only reason that even the shopkeepers have good knowledge about bitcoin and therefore they are accepting bitcoin in their shops.

That is right, one of the early adopters of bitcoin is the country of Brazil and i think they have a lot of good results for using bitcoin as their another kind of payment system and the owners of the shops are already earned a lot of money like now that the price of bitcoin is very high and they almost double or triple the value of their bitcoin right now.

This is not easy as it looks like.
Accepting bitcoins is one thing and daily getting many customers who pay in bitcoins is another.
In most of my local shops too there is at most 10 transactions in a day in bitcoins, so it's not like that they will be rich in case of bitcoin ralley as the bitcoins they own are pretty much less to make rich them in a price ralley.

[jaysabi]

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?

Agree with this completely. Bitcoin doesn't satisfy the definition of a currency, and the part that is most lacking is a stable store of value. It's too volatile, which makes it fantastic for gamblers and speculators to trade in and out of it, but terrible for conducting commerce or using to store wealth, which are necessary for a currency to provide. I can get on board with calling it an investment, but it's clearly a speculative and high risk investment. Based on its characteristics, it cannot be more than that

These are not Bitcoin inherent characteristics or features, by any means

Bitcoin is volatile precisely because it is not used in commerce, though this is sort of a vicious circle here. That is, Bitcoin is not used as a real currency because it is too volatile but it is too volatile because it is not used as a currency. Nonetheless, I still have to add that I don't agree that the most important feature of a currency (which Bitcoin allegedly lacks) is being a stable store of value. But let's assume that you are right (i.e. being a stable store of value is an important if not outright most important characteristic of a currency). In this very case, Bitcoin has everything in it to become such a store of value since its issuance is rigidly fixed, predetermined as well as known in advance to virtually everyone who cares, and there cannot possibly be more than 21M coins in the end. As you can easily conclude, volatility is not inherent to Bitcoin and thus it is necessarily caused by external factors which can change over time

Chicken and the egg argument notwithstanding, instability is an inherent characteristic of bitcoin. Bitcoin has never been stable enough for dependable commerce because it's not backed by anything but a collective sense of what it's worth. If there were no alternative currencies in the world, perhaps it would have a stable value out of necessity. It's because there actually are stable currencies that bitcoin can fluctuate, because wealth created by fluctuating value is preserved by selling out of the position. The fixed supply hasn't done anything to create a stable value, so you have to conclude that the volatility is because no one is interested in it as a currency, but a speculative vehicle from which they can profit from. Of the major functions of money, (medium of exchange, unit of account, store of value) store of value is the only one bitcoin doesn't meet well, and there's no reason to expect that it ever will. Bitcoin will always be short term in nature, because holding long term opens the holder up to the risk of wild fluctuations in the value stored within, which is the last thing anyone should want in a currency

I don't particularly disagree with your attitude

But you still seem to lack a proper understanding and deep insight into the matter of things, in this case into currencies and money. Personally, I would refrain from distinguishing between them here to avoid useless confusion. In other words, you describe effects without trying to delve into the causes of these effects. First of all, any currency (whether is backed up by anything or not) remains a matter of "a collective sense of what it's worth". More specifically, currency worthiness (as a currency) is defined exclusively by whether it is used as a currency or not ("money is what money does"). Gold is dear, but it basically has no monetary utility (read it is not money) because it doesn't and cannot circulate nowadays as a currency

Further, I don't agree that "a store of value is the only [function] bitcoin doesn't meet well". Not that I deny that it is factually wrong. It would be going against reality to argue to the contrary (at least, so far). What I mean to say is that Bitcoin's store of value advantage before fiat currencies gets heavily overridden and massively "run over" by external factors. Nevertheless, this built-in feature, its essence of sorts, is still showing through when we see attempts at instigating panic sell-off now and then, which still miserably fail. In other words, the kind of volatility we see today is not the volatility of some trash asset or money. It seems to be directed primarily upwards, and it is debatable whether we can call it volatility at all

While you were telling me all about my lack of understanding and deep insight into the nature of money, you were displaying your own misconceptions about quite a basic concept. Perhaps you'd be better suited not to lecture from a place of perceived superiority when you don't understand basic concepts like volatility yourself. Volatility is a very specific and easily demonstrable concept. Volatility is a measure of price change over time. The only way not to have volatility is to have stable prices over time. Constantly moving in one direction is not an unvolatile instrument. When you plot bitcoins historical volatility against the dollar, its striking and there's no debate to be had. The blue line below is Bitcoin's volatility compared to the USD, and the purple line is gold's volatility compared to the same. Measurements use the daily standard deviation over the preceding 30 day window.

[n0ne]

At the beginning of bitcoin it is not accepted in our economy as a currency. But they will study the bitcoin that what was the benefits of it in our economy later on bitcoin is accepted as a currency. There are some bitcoin used for criminal transaction because it is anonymous.

and specially in physical shops the shopkeepers are not ready to accept bitcoin, i think still it will take a lot of time when all the people of the world will start using bitcoin and the all the shops will also accept bitcoin for shopping.

but i heard that many shopkeepers accepting bitcoin and i hope that bitcoin will be also acceptable in local shop in your country and bitcoin is trusted currency because people easily will accept bitcoin in their shopping center.

yes in some places for example in Brazil the shopkeepers already accept bitcoin, actually the number of bitcoin users are more there as compare to other places and that is the only reason that even the shopkeepers have good knowledge about bitcoin and therefore they are accepting bitcoin in their shops.

That is right, one of the early adopters of bitcoin is the country of Brazil and i think they have a lot of good results for using bitcoin as their another kind of payment system and the owners of the shops are already earned a lot of money like now that the price of bitcoin is very high and they almost double or triple the value of their bitcoin right now.

Brazil is the one that adopted bitcoin in the early days of its existence. Now this has profited big with the enormous growth happening with bitcoin. Brazil has got more shops that accept bitcoin and soon this will be overcome by Japan as more than 25k merchandisers have started accepting bitcoin making a big moves in the price.

[pinkpanther03]

Well, the more others says that bitcoin is no longer a currency it became more a legal currency online and also became popular too. Look a the price value of bitcoin at the present time now it is almost 1700$ each bitcoin. The demand was getting higher more and more and many businesses too are also adopting the concept of bitcoin.

[fujyo86]

Well, the more others says that bitcoin is no longer a currency it became more a legal currency online and also became popular too. Look a the price value of bitcoin at the present time now it is almost 1700$ each bitcoin. The demand was getting higher more and more and many businesses too are also adopting the concept of bitcoin.

Bitcoin is more than a currency, bitcoin has risen to an asset for one's investment, because many people get big profits from current price spike. Demand for bitcoin is increasing, giving extra benefits to bitcoin owners who hold it.

[Karloff]

Well, the more others says that bitcoin is no longer a currency it became more a legal currency online and also became popular too. Look a the price value of bitcoin at the present time now it is almost 1700$ each bitcoin. The demand was getting higher more and more and many businesses too are also adopting the concept of bitcoin.

Bitcoin is more than a currency, bitcoin has risen to an asset for one's investment, because many people get big profits from current price spike. Demand for bitcoin is increasing, giving extra benefits to bitcoin owners who hold it.

Well, if bitcoin is not considered a currency, then it is considered a good asset for the future which is constantly growing rapidly.