Bitcoin just an asset ?

[staceyoh]

For me bitcoin is an asset and currency.
Because you can use bitcoin on a lot of
things, so for me it is like a currency.

[care2yak]

In fact, the currency is an asset with the highest liquidity, so if bitcoin becomes sufficiently liquid, it will be on par with traditional currencies.

i agree - currencies are assets with the highest liquidity, and these fund experts are still unsure about how to define and categorize crypto assets because of its novelty. they want to refer to it as "asset" because they all agree that bitcoin is something valuable yet despite it being used as a medium for purchasing goods and services, they would not refer to it as a "currency". maybe because it's in a category of its own   I read somewhere that bitcoin has been categorized as a commodity like gold, oil, silver, copper, and the like which can also be used in exchange for goods and services. i suppose referring to bitcoin as an asset is fine and is better than currency which is prone to inflation burn.

[krishnapramod]

I have read in the news that that like bitcoin as virtual currencies are assets and does not have the characteristics or what it takes to be a currency that could meet our modern economic needs. It was said that it does not have the fundamental attributes. What are your thoughts about it?

I just read an article, China’s Central Bank Not Backing Bitcoin as Currency

Bitcoin does not have the fundamental attributes needed to be a currency as it is a string of code generated by complex algorithms...But I do not deny that virtual currencies have technical value and are a type of asset.

Now the complex algorithms generate a string of code, or token, bitcoin specifically. Currency is simply a token used as money in a country, these tokens include fiat currency, asset backed currency, commodity backed currency and the latest addition digital currency.

Since bitcoin is not printed like fiat, nor it has a physical use like gold, it does not mean it lacks fundamental attributes to be a currency. Right now people are using it as a speculative asset, but when more people start using it as a token of money, it would be a currency. Its potential is just not restricted to being an asset or commodity.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/chinas-central-bank-not-backing-bitcoin-as-currency

[Caelanpelley]

I have read in the news that that like bitcoin as virtual currencies are assets and does not have the characteristics or what it takes to be a currency that could meet our modern economic needs. It was said that it does not have the fundamental attributes. What are your thoughts about it?

Bitcoin is not a virtual currency as people perceive, it is pre-engineering. The evidence is that bitcoin has existed for some time and is beneficial to the user.I do not understand what is the basic attribute you get from bitcoin? Does it also contribute to a change in the economy? countries have gradually accepted the bitcoin trade.

[DooMAD]

I have read in the news that that like bitcoin as virtual currencies are assets and does not have the characteristics or what it takes to be a currency that could meet our modern economic needs. It was said that it does not have the fundamental attributes. What are your thoughts about it?

The issue with reading things in the news is that you're often relying on people on the outside peeking in and sharing their initial impression of what little they've glimpsed and understood.  As such, you can't always take that impression at face value.  In truth, it largely depends on how you freely choose to use it.  If you simply accumulate bitcoin in the hope of selling it later at a higher price, then describing it as an asset is perfectly fitting.  If, however, you're actively spending and/or receiving bitcoins in exchange for labour, goods or services, then describing it as currency is perfectly fitting.  Granted, there are probably more people doing the former than the latter at the moment, though, which may be why people lean more towards asset.

Legally, however, you have to go by what the government in your locality treat it as.  What you or I choose to call it has little bearing in the eyes of the law.

[hatshepsut93]

I have read in the news that that like bitcoin as virtual currencies are assets and does not have the characteristics or what it takes to be a currency that could meet our modern economic needs. It was said that it does not have the fundamental attributes. What are your thoughts about it?

Bitcoin is kinda in-between. Real assets are almost never used as a currency, you can't find any place that accepts ounces of gold as payment method or for donations, while Bitcoin can and is used for those purposes. The problem is Bitcoin is very expensive to use,  if you pay $0.50-$1 in fees for every transaction and do ~100 transactions per month, that will be $70 per month for using Bitcoin. This means that most people wouldn't use it as a currency until scaling problem is solved, unless there's no alternatives. Bitcoin has it's own niche uses as a currency, when you need to send money to a country that doesn't support traditional payment systems or if you need to make private transaction.

[YuginKadoya]

yes bitcoin can not currently process a million transactions per second but that doesn't mean it is not a currency. a currency is what you can use in exchange for goods and bitcoin can and is doing that perfectly well.
and it doesn't need to process a million transaction per second right now
in the future when it needs it, hopefully that ability is also added.

Well For now we may call it a n asset, because you can surely invest and buy as much bitcoin as we like and earn something big when the price goes up, well I think in some other countries they can surely make bitcoin their currency because they can surely use bitcoin for direct transaction and exchange for goods and stuff, but what about the other countries that doesn't have this kind of convenient and need to convert bitcoin to fiat first, but I think you can surely call bitcoin as asset and currency.

[franco123]

In a simple description, yes. Bitcoin is considered an asset because of three things:

1) It is owned by a person and is part of his or her total net worth.
2) It has its own market value that can depreciate or appreciate.
3) It generates income.

[radjie]

Yes bitcoin is just an asset so bitcoin is only a means of exchange and so far many countries have not been able to formalize bitcoin as a means of payment but the government can not prohibit the existence of bitcoin because bitcoin can be used only as a property that can be exchanged for currency We use.

[wantjokull]

Bitcoin is crypto currency and has value which can be traded in the market for other assets,  physical stuff and much more. Its not just an asset it is currency with good valuation in the market. It has big investors and fan groups too. Even we can have it exchanged for any currency in the world as well as it can be bought with other currency.  :-)

[Iranus]

I have read in the news that that like bitcoin as virtual currencies are assets and does not have the characteristics or what it takes to be a currency that could meet our modern economic needs. It was said that it does not have the fundamental attributes. What are your thoughts about it?

If you simply accumulate bitcoin in the hope of selling it later at a higher price, then describing it as an asset is perfectly fitting.

However, Bitcoin does match the characteristics of money better than fiat money does.  The conversion rate between Bitcoin and fiat and whether people intend to trade it or invest in it does not change this.

The characteristics of money are listed here.

The characteristics of money are durability, portability, divisibility, uniformity, limited supply, and acceptability.

Durability - Bitcoin lasts forever.  As long as there are people willing to use it, it will continue to exist.  The same cannot be said of physical fiat money which can break or wear down, or of digital fiat money, which is controlled by banks and governments.

Portability - phone wallets such as Breadwallet and Mycelium allow you to have your coins no matter where you are.

Divisibility - each one Bitcoin is made up of 100,000,000 spendable units.  More divisible than a dollar to cents, for example.  Admittedly it's impractical to spend just 1 satoshi, but microtransactions with digital fiat such as credit cards are impractical as well.  Many small places that I've seen only accept credit cards if you're paying a certain amount.

Uniformity - Bitcoin is all the same, and after several confirmations, the probability of double spending or "counterfeiting" Bitcoin is completely negligible.  Physical fiat money has been counterfeit many times before and taken up a large amount of the economy - some banks have even taken counterfeit bills by mistake in the past.

Limited supply - There will never have more than 21,000,000 coins, and the amount which come into circulation until all the coins are mined is predictable.  Fiat money is created and there is a constant inflation rate - the supply is not limited and often increases dramatically at the whims of central banks and governments.

Acceptability - Fiat money is dramatically better for this.  Other things are not legal tender for debts, and almost any shop will take fiat before even considering BTC.  However, the only solution is to use Bitcoin and be part of the movement that makes it more accepted.

[boss2]

According to me, bitcoin is not only an asset . Firstly we know bitcoin as a global currency . As it's popularity is growing up day by day so value of bitcoin is increasing  so many people is thinking bitcoin as an asset . Bitcoin is a decentralized global currency which should be treated as a currency instead of an asset.

[NJB18]

I have read in the news that that like bitcoin as virtual currencies are assets and does not have the characteristics or what it takes to be a currency that could meet our modern economic needs. It was said that it does not have the fundamental attributes. What are your thoughts about it?

They have a point actually. The entire world is using fiat for now. The entire system already adjusted and tailored fit for fiat transactions.

However, time will come when digital currency will become widespread to the extent that it will be another great option at par with fiat currency.

[Kprawn]

Bitcoin is not ready to be a global reserve currency, because it cannot scale to that level with the current code. It might be able to handle the

load for a few smaller countries when the Lightning network is in affect. Yes, it might be better suited as a commodity at the moment and also

a store of value, but that might change as soon as the scaling issues are sorted out. 

[skorupi17]

I have read in the news that that like bitcoin as virtual currencies are assets and does not have the characteristics or what it takes to be a currency that could meet our modern economic needs. It was said that it does not have the fundamental attributes. What are your thoughts about it?

That is correct. Bitcoin really is behaving more like an asset or investment rather than a currency. This is the reason why Bitcoin is impractical to be used just like fiat in a daily basis. There is so much volatility. This asset-like behavior of Bitcoin is the reason why there are many people who are engaging in it to their investment. Bitcoin's price grow over time unlike currency (fiat) that gets devalued over time.

[LodisMcguire]

For now,it is an asset,there is few people using it as currency to buy something right now
But in the future,if bitcoin has reasonable fees and fast transaction process,people will treat it as currency rather than an asset

[abdillahzidan]

Yes bitcoin for now is just an asset, because bitcoin is just a virtual currency, called virtual because bitcoin has the most prominent characteristics among its other virtual money, and until now bitcoin can not yet be a medium of full value exchange, Still consider bitcoin only as an ass

[zwiggel]

Bitcoin is good asset,and Bitcoin is more than an asset,is works like a currency. bitcoin works like a bank.we can send and receive the money through the internet.it is very fast and safe.

[mackenzied]

Bitcoin is good asset,and Bitcoin is more than an asset,is works like a currency. bitcoin works like a bank.we can send and receive the money through the internet.it is very fast and safe.

Moreover, bitcoin is like a kind of stock, one of the strongest stocks that can dominate the entire market. The crypto market is just like the stock market, everything is similar.

[aoihs00]

Who cares about the news if we are enjoying all the services provided by bitcoin in real life. Believe in what you see or experience and currently i am having immense experience of bitcoin in buying services and goos and on top of that getting fiat money from it. There is exchanger, trading platform and bitcoin has big value. So its worth calling it more than just assets.