Will Bitcoin Maketh a Good Currency?

[Picky]

Belief: Bitcoin Maketh a Good Currency
Reality: Massive Price Fluctuation Makes Bitcoin a Bad Currency

Current Bitcoin are divided into several camps: those who believe it is a speculative asset, those who think it is a currency or potential to be a currency and those who thinks it's just a hype or even a scam. One of the criteria of a good currency is value stability. But Bitcoin is anything but stable. In fact, if compared to other coins, Litecoin is a better choice due to its stability (in the short term). The rise and fall of Bitcoin price is drastic and sudden. It can rise or fall by as much as $300-$400 in one single day. Such volatility does not make a good currency.

Also, if Bitcoin continues appreciating in value, nobody is going to use it. For those who strongly believe its value will continue to appreciate (deflationary), why would they use it to buy a sofa today when they believe the value is going to rise the next day. Everyone is going to hoard bitcoins instead. On the other hand, if it is depreciating in value, then Bitcoin is no different from other fiat currencies (inflationary). Either way, Bitcoin is far from being a good alternative currency.

In short, Bitcoin price is far from stable. And if Bitcoin is deflationary, everybody will hoard it and nobody will use it as a currency. If it is inflationary, what difference it is from any other fiat currencies?

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[aleksej996]

On average by using Bitcoin you just earn money even if you actively use it as a currency, due to it's overall price increase.
So in the long run, it is not that bad as currency, if you are committed to it and take the risk.
Bitcoin is still very young, pretty much in experimental stage. As people see it more and more as a good and smart system, it will rise in price until it can't rise much more. Then, if it reaches that high price, it should become stable in the short term and until then, it should have a bullish trend. So if you believe in it, there is no sense not to use it if you can.
You can't really expect something to be perfect from the start. Every revolution has it's unstable period, that comes from it's definition. If it was stable right now, it would be THE system, not the revolution.
Reaching for greatness always comes with a risk and only brave are the rebels.

I don't think that hoarding Bitcoin would be any problem whatsoever. If people just don't use it as much, then great, lower mining fees. They will use it when they need to. You shouldn't force people to spend their money, let them hoard it if they wish. It only hurts the big companies that are selling unnecessary products. Don't let them manipulate you and make you think you need the inflation. They just say that so they speed up the process of rich getting richer.
Rich people don't run to spend their money, since they have enough to invest and hoard them in stocks or real estate, an average folk doesn't so you have to buy something temporary and expendable.

[maokoto]

I do not think it would do bad as a currency. The fact that is deflationary and you can buy more tomorrow if you hoard them today, well... it would not likely be a problem once you really need to use them. Once it is popular enough and many people have it, they are likely to accept it as a means of payment regardless of possible deflation IMO.

[mk4]

In short, Bitcoin price is far from stable. And if Bitcoin is deflationary, everybody will hoard it and nobody will use it as a currency.

Everybody just holding bitcoin is quite an assumption. Alot of people are using bitcoin as payments already. One of which is through Bitpay, which is being used on eCommerce stores today. Everyday stores are slowly and surely accepting bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as payments. But yes, bitcoin has alot of investors that just simply holds them and doing nothing.

If it is inflationary, what difference it is from any other fiat currencies?

If ever bitcoin becomes inflationary, you still can't compare bitcoin to fiat, since bitcoin being not inflationary is only one of many of the advantages of bitcoin. You're forgetting some other important factors of bitcoin: being decentralized, somewhat anonymous(to an extent), secure due to encryption, etc. Does fiat have those characteristics? Nope.

Will Bitcoin Maketh a Good Currency? It's currently very debatable. Since some people look at bitcoin only as store value and not as a transaction currency. One thing is for sure, only time will tell.