Is Bitcoin digital gold or digital cash?

[687_2]

Answers to this question are constantly posted on this forum and on Reddit by people who are not software engineers/developers, nor product managers. Either that or they are truly terrible at their jobs. Reddit in particular has really turned into a garbage dump, but that's something for another discussion.

Anyway, in a business context you want to build software that meets your customer's expectations, so understanding how a user makes use of your software solution is really important for smooth communication and shared understanding between management, marketing and engineering. Normally you want to write out really detailed user stories/journeys, maybe even draw diagrams or create mock-ups that demonstrate the exact problem you're trying to solve and how your thing will solve it.

Here's a teaser:

Alice is at a farmer's market and wants to buy broccoli from a vendor. How does she pay?

Here are just a few important details that we need to know first:

- What country is Alice in, and what are the economic conditions?
- How much money does she make every year/how well off is she?
- How technologically sophisticated is she/how old is she?  
- What tastes and preferences does Alice have/what prejudices her in certain ways?


We need a lot more information before we start talking about what BIP we can code up in a day. If you think about these questions only from your own perspective and experience, you're discounting the majority of people on this planet that want to use the same technology. Bitcoin's value depends mainly on how many people can safely use it, and if it's not in use by the largest number of people possible, it will not achieve it's full potential/value.

The correct answer to the question in this poll is "it depends". Bitcoin is for humans, and humans have different needs. Most likely every redditor and bitcoin.org poster's favorite potential use case, "in-person payments at high volume merchants", will not be satisfied by Bitcoin directly. Use something else for that one narrow use case if Bitcoin isn't doing it for you, and support the engineers who are working to make Bitcoin more secure and stable, goddamnit  

[coinbitte]

It's not gold, but it will be more goldy than gold. 

[Instamined]

It's a temporary store of value and a speculative asset.

I don't think it can be called a true store of value unless it maintains 4 digits for 4 years or something because after the 2013 4 digit slam down to 200-300 usd I think anyone who sees it as a true store of value is clueless.


Yes, Bitcoin is relatively stable due to market interest but longterm is a continual unknown.

[hinatashoyou]

Bitcoin is the currency of the future is very open and dynamic, the transaction is very easy and fast

[AngryDwarf]

Without a level of utility value, bitcoin cannot be a store of value.

[ASHLIUSZ]

It is an value storage token that has got the similarities of digital gold. One thing that makes it better than the digital gold or digital cash is it's evolution within the system or technology unlike the commodity value. The value has now getting closer to gold and soon it would cross it growing big.

[1Referee]

It depends on how everyone as an individual makes use of Bitcoin. I personally see and use it more as something that can be seen as Gold. I am not really interested in using my coins for spending purposes. I use it as a store of value, where my main motive is to keep a large portion of my wealth outside the banking and governmental system. At the same time, the volatile nature of Bitcoin lends itself perfectly for investment/trading purposes, which is also what I am using Bitcoin for. For me the right term is indeed digital Gold.

[monsanto]

It is interesting how the marketing has changed over the years. It seems it wasn't that long ago that it was trumpeted as both gold and digital cash. With the scaling debate and fee increases though the digital cash angle has taken a backseat to the digital gold narrative. And in fairness it was originally conceived as "bit gold" so maybe this is the inevitable end point of any crypto asset; it eventually runs into scaling problems and then relies on some additional layer to create the cash part.

[BillyBobZorton]

It is interesting how the marketing has changed over the years. It seems it wasn't that long ago that it was trumpeted as both gold and digital cash. With the scaling debate and fee increases though the digital cash angle has taken a backseat to the digital gold narrative. And in fairness it was originally conceived as "bit gold" so maybe this is the inevitable end point of any crypto asset; it eventually runs into scaling problems and then relies on some additional layer to create the cash part.

Well, you can't sell it as both. There's only one way: digital gold. Big blocks kill the digital gold feature, which kill the digital cash feature too (you can have digital cash when digital gold is not an option), since big blocks centralize the network.

With conservative blocks, you can get digital gold, and you can build on top a second layer, which is debatable if it would be considered digital cash or not, but it's definitely more private than traditional payment systems and fiat currencies.

[lurker10]

Digital settlement and reserve currency.

Payment system. Yes. Store of value. Sure. It can and has many functions.

[citywise2]

Moreover what i am seeing concern about bitcoin is a future currency that is coming up to dominate others.
So it is a future currency as we are seeing every thing clear.
I don't think that there any currency in comparison with bitcoin now.

[soul-impact]

It is an value storage token that has got the similarities of digital gold. One thing that makes it better than the digital gold or digital cash is it's evolution within the system or technology unlike the commodity value. The value has now getting closer to gold and soon it would cross it growing big.

Bitcoin is a symbol of the power of technology, the power of digital, as far as I know, 1M BTC has the power of 500 supercomputers working together. A terrible power. That's why bitcoins are popular. And bitcoin can really compete with gold, not long ago, it has overtaken gold, even for a short time, but enough to show its mighty power.

[BitcoinGirl.Club]

I see it to be both digital gold and  digital cash but to me it means digital cash

simply because am not the hodler type of user and its more of digital cash for me as i get to use it for most of my daily necessities

[saocodonls95]

Dear all''
I think BTC is digital cash because at times, buy some think with money, not exchange!
 

[MeridianMDN]

Answers to this question are constantly posted on this forum and on Reddit by people who are not software engineers/developers, nor product managers. Either that or they are truly terrible at their jobs. Reddit in particular has really turned into a garbage dump, but that's something for another discussion.

More than 80% of Bitcoin users are not computer code literate - in my opinion, this is the main issue when it comes to mainstream adoption of digital assets.

Non code literate market participants are not being catered to in any direct or meaningful way.

This could cause serious problems in the future is left un-addressed

[xuan87]

It is a digital currency, or can be called as digital cash, that was the main purpose of bitcoin created, to make global transaction easier and more efficient without the need of changing the value of different fiat, however because of bitcoin is valuable and the amount is limited people used this opportunity to create more profit by making them "more wanted" by keep bitcoin as investment and sell it when the price is right, so bitcoin can become digital gold for investment or digital cash for transaction

[Iranus]

To some extent Bitcoin needs to be both.  I think that it was only a payment system due to the influx of new money and the high supply of new Bitcoin in the early days.  As time goes on, Bitcoin will require more and more money to be put in for it to be practical, but it will still be practical if you do put that much money in and people will do it so it'll be more like gold.

To some extent, Bitcoin needs the element of digital currency in order to act like gold, because people still need to pass gold between different parties.  Online wallets should be viewed like Goldmoney or something that holds your gold for you because you don't feel like you can handle it yourself.

[Kprawn]

If you ask a early adopter, you mostly get the answer " Digital Gold " .... but many people hold firm that Bitcoin is supposed to be

a alternative for cash, or a Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. I use both the currency token and also the store of value

feature, because you can do both.  

[ethereumhunter]

i think bitcoin have both function which is a store of value and a payment system because when we don't want to spend our bitcoin, then we can store it in our wallet and the other side, we can spend it for replace existing payment system that we know in internet. now maybe bitcoin is can not be like gold but in future if bitcoin is raise the new people and the system of bitcoin and blockchain is more effective than now, i think bitcoin will become digital gold and digital cash.

[Mr.grin]

I see bitcoin more as cash than as gold. Well, I can use bitcoin as a transaction tool, so I say that bitcoin is money in internet, not gold from internet. It looks good if we see bitcoin as money, because the profit becomes bigger.