Is a bitcoin wallet a savings account or a payment account?

[jansma43]

Is bitcoin virtual gold or virtual cash? At this moment I consider bitcoin more as virtual gold. Currently banks offer savings accounts and payment accounts. I consider my bitcoin wallet as a savings account. At this moment my bitcoin wallets are not suitable as a payment account. That is not a problem because I don’t want to pay with bitcoin. I regret all my past bitcoin payments (I do have a bitcoin debit card). I should have made those past payments with fiat currency and I should have saved my bitcoins because the value of those bitcoins has gone up considerably. If you pay your coffee with bitcoin today you may remember it in the future as the most expensive coffee ever, much like the guy who paid 10.000 bitcoin for two pizza’s back in 2010.

Apart from the fact that I don’t want to pay with bitcoin, bitcoin is also not suitable for most payments. There is not enough transaction processing capacity, the fees are too high, the confirmation times are too long and bitcoin is not yet generally accepted. A cryptocurrency payment account requires different or additional technology. This could be the bitcoin lightning network or another cryptocurrency that has a much bigger transaction capacity like for example IOTA (IOTA uses a two dimensional tangle instead of the one dimensional blockchain). Several altcoins also consider themselves as a useful cryptocurrency for payments. Altcoins like Bitcoin Cash, Monero, DigitalCash and Zcash could develop into useful currencies for payments but currently their acceptance is very limited. For now I will keep paying my bills with old fashioned fiat currency but that could change in the near future.

My conclusion is that for the time being bitcoin is more like virtual gold. It is however in a savings account and can be transferred much easier than the real gold. In the future the lightning network and/or altcoins will probably also provide virtual cash in suitable payment accounts.

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[marcombo]

At this moment in many countries is considered more like gold than a currency, but independently of that I think that depends on the use that people give to the Bitcoin.

[EXtremeAEX]

Is bitcoin virtual gold or virtual cash? At this moment I consider bitcoin more as virtual gold. Currently banks offer savings accounts and payment accounts. I consider my bitcoin wallet as a savings account. At this moment my bitcoin wallets are not suitable as a payment account.

Bitcoin was created to by satoshi to be a digital investment, so you are right, it is more like virtual gold where you store it online. Also true that Bitcoin wallets can be both for payments and a savings, especially if you are doing  businesses online.

That is not a problem because I don’t want to pay with bitcoin. I regret all my past bitcoin payments (I do have a bitcoin debit card). I should have made those past payments with fiat currency and I should have saved my bitcoins because the value of those bitcoins has gone up considerably.

I have made many transactions and the fees are the thing that stops me as I usually do microtransactions <10USD, and the fees take up a significant portion. Just save your BTC for now. If you are dealing with thousands of dollars, then fees shouldnt be much of a problem then.

[uszaty43]

It works like a savings account, but you can just spend it wherever you want, if you want to pay for a coffee, you can do it, but you will have to face the high amount of money that fees will cost to you, lmao.
But there are several wallets that lets you make multi payments without having to spend a lot of money in fees, because they have multiple outputs, like those wallets from the exchanges like poloniex or bittrex, they are charging you about 0.0001 bitcoins per transaction, and it is nothing compared to other wallet's fees.

[goaldigger]

The wallet im using now is more on payment. You can pay bills using bitcoins and turn it into fiat if you need it with corresponding fees. If you just store it on your wallet, maybe it can considered as savings. Its price increases tho.

[lucifochrome]

Well it can be a savings account or a payment account. If you are mainly hodling bitcoins like for example per month you put X amount of bitcoin to this account then this could be your savings account and as time goes by you get interest larger than any bank could offer. Then on the other hand if say for example there is a restaurant or any business that you had transaction with and they accept bitcoin then this can be your mode of payment so your wallet now is for payment account.

[ClvrGmr]

First of all it is not a virtual thing. Maybe intangible but it is not virtual since it has a true value. Bitcoin is a real type of currency in the form of digital. Just because you can't touch it nor see uit it is considered virtual.

[moonchaser_babylove28]

Is bitcoin virtual gold or virtual cash? At this moment I consider bitcoin more as virtual gold. Currently banks offer savings accounts and payment accounts. I consider my bitcoin wallet as a savings account. At this moment my bitcoin wallets are not suitable as a payment account. That is not a problem because I don’t want to pay with bitcoin. I regret all my past bitcoin payments (I do have a bitcoin debit card). I should have made those past payments with fiat currency and I should have saved my bitcoins because the value of those bitcoins has gone up considerably. If you pay your coffee with bitcoin today you may remember it in the future as the most expensive coffee ever, much like the guy who paid 10.000 bitcoin for two pizza’s back in 2010.

Apart from the fact that I don’t want to pay with bitcoin, bitcoin is also not suitable for most payments. There is not enough transaction processing capacity, the fees are too high, the confirmation times are too long and bitcoin is not yet generally accepted. A cryptocurrency payment account requires different or additional technology. This could be the bitcoin lightning network or another cryptocurrency that has a much bigger transaction capacity like for example IOTA (IOTA uses a two dimensional tangle instead of the one dimensional blockchain). Several altcoins also consider themselves as a useful cryptocurrency for payments. Altcoins like Bitcoin Cash, Monero, DigitalCash and Zcash could develop into useful currencies for payments but currently their acceptance is very limited. For now I will keep paying my bills with old fashioned fiat currency but that could change in the near future.

My conclusion is that for the time being bitcoin is more like virtual gold. It is however in a savings account and can be transferred much easier than the real gold. In the future the lightning network and/or altcoins will probably also provide virtual cash in suitable payment accounts.

That is basically all right indeed, bitcoin as of the moment served as a gold online like asset that serve as a investment vehicle of people as of the moment. We indeed know that the payment system of bitcoin is not that yet fast and charge is at all time highs, this set up might not be ideal to payment system for it will further burden users than help them, satoshi will definitely like this.

[cpfreeplz]

TL;DR IOTA shill. Buy IOTA.

When you increase 25x in price the fees are going to follow the same trend. It's naive to think they wouldn't. 150 Satoshis per byte really isn't massive. It's maybe 5-10x what is was a couple of years ago. I'd rather it be lower too but what are you going to do about it. Bitcoin is still king.

[GreatOrchid]

it depends in the usage that you are going to give to your wallet.. If you are going to hold your coins for some time, then of course that it is going to be like a savings account, but a payment account applies to another kind of services. Maybe it makes more sense with those wallets like the one from Local Bitcoins, that is always used to send/receive payments quickly.
Or those wallets from a Bitcoin Debit Card, in where you always have your paymets debited from there, and this is how it works.
It applies to a lot of things.

[kiboloves]

I think that, although bitcoin has many advantages, it's the first virtual currency, and it's powerful, and it doesn't change. But it has some drawbacks, too. Maybe that's why more and more people use ETH now.

[GreenBits]

Its both, and to be honest a regular saving account is also both. you can make transactions just fine out of a traditional bank offered savings account, there is just a limit to how many transactions you get per month before they start charging you a penalty. bitcoin obviously doesnt have this restriction. anything can be a store of value, if someone wants it. given that yes, bitcoin is obviously a currency (it functions poorly in my opinion, but it passes the test) then these arent mutually exclusive things.

[SANDY-SANDRA]

Not only savings can also be paid, cash withdrawal and storage capabilities, but also very safe to use as you go.

[kimpena]

Bitcoin wallet can be both of it. I usually use my bitcoin wallet as a savings account, cause it is easier for me to check always my balance on it. But there are times whenever I do not feel going out to pay bills or pay something I bought, I do use my bitcoin wallet as payment account but this is very unusual, I do maybe only once a month. Because I always aim to have a savings in my btc wallet. It is up to you on how will you consider your bitcoin wallet.

[miyaka26]

For this days it is more like a bitcoin virtual gold that can act as a growing investments the only thing we like about it is the price always increase from time to time but the functionality of being a cash is still there, you can spend it for different purposes or can use for everyday lives but you may miss the chance that the bitcoin is still cheap for spending it so for now it is the best to hold it. In the near future where bitcoin reach its stable price range the use of bitcoin wallet as a cash is common and useful.