Does bitcoin need to be a currency?

[Reid]

It is a currency, no doubt about that.

I guess what you are really implying to is about the usage.
Yes, that is one problem in many cases of crypto currencies also in altcoin section.
Merchants are still doubting the usage of crypto currencies specially Bitcoin.
The volatiliy is still their one of the most                                                                      

[Artemis3]

Hi, I created a thread two days ago. Here is the link.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5176246
I discussed about the effect of BAKKT on future of bitcoin and one of my concerns was how bitcoin is treated by BAKKT as an investment and store of value.
In some of replies I got, people believe that there is no problem if bitcoin remains an investment forever and won't be a currency.
What do you think? What will happen if bitcoin won't be a currency and it remains an investments like it is today?
I personally believe that people now thinks that bitcoin is a good investment because they believe that bitcoin will be a currency. In other words, bitcoin is the future currency. In my opinion, if bitcoin is not supposed to be a currency, it cannot survive forever as an investment. Why should people invest in something that has not any benefit?
What do you think?

You cannot change it from the outside, Bitcoin is what it is, wherever you accept it (legalize it) or not (criminalize it). The State is banging its head against the wall, it will have to cede sooner than later, they cannot contain it no matter what. It was literally designed to go around such things.

So, can they block you and me from, you paying me in bitcoin, and me paying you in bitcoin? No they can't. So yes its a currency, with or without their blessing. You can see it as a store of value, because it happens to be deflationary, but it is about time a deflationary coin returned, ever since humanity abandoned precious metals as coins due to several historical reasons and other factors, usually tied with governments trying to mess with the economy and getting burnt in the process.

So separating State from Currency once and for all, is none the less what bitcoin is achieving, successfully. Welcome those States that accept it, and shame the small group scared of it, because they can't manipulate it like the always did with fiat.

[stadus]

It is a currency, no doubt about that.

I guess what you are really implying to is about the usage.
Yes, that is one problem in many cases of crypto currencies also in altcoin section.
Merchants are still doubting the usage of crypto currencies specially Bitcoin.
The volatiliy is still their one of the most                                                                      

I hope they are also aware that we have a lot of altcoins particularly the stable coins which purpose is to eliminate the volatility.
We have a lot of popular stable coins in the market which liquity is high and I think that's big enough to cater the businesses that would accept bitcoin as a currency. In fact Tether has the biggest trading volume in the market now.

[Baronets]

Wow - what an interesting range of replies, and I'd like to make some comments and venture some opinions.

There is no "the" government, the closest is probably the Anglophone empire which controls the central banks.

Fiat currencies are not created by governments, they are created by the central banks, governments just print notes based on currency they have borrowed from the banks.

Gold is increasing in use as a currency as the US dollar loses its status as a reserve currency. Because of its high value, it is used nainly at corporate and state levels, and by major crime organisations.

Gold is legal tender in a number of countries, and the UK is one of these. The Sovereign ( £1 face value ), and the Britannia ( £100 face value ). Of course the real value is probably 10 times the face value, and I suspect they maintain their status as legal tender to help the rich to avoid various taxes.

Bitcoin will continue to increase in value in my opinion, and this will remove whole Bitcoins from the reach of most peiople. However, the Satoshi has a much more manageable value, and this could well become a generally accepted unit of international currency. Even if the value of Bitcoin increases to astronomical levels, the Satoshi still has the capability of further sub-division, for example a micro Satoshi could be used with a value of one millionth of a Satoshi.

[putukin]

Bitcoin is multifunctional and I think it would be foolish to use it only as an investment and store of value.

[shoreno]

Bitcoin is a currency just before it came out  but it does not mean that it should sustain this characteristics in order for him to succeed  because btc can still work perfectly even on an asset form  .  

can you picture out gold ?  Gold is not a currency but why people loves to buy and invest on gold ?  Simply because its precious or valueable same as bitcoin  . but like gold people can use it as a means of currency if ever they want to or if ever cash is not available .

[TheUltraElite]

Bitcoin is a digial currency. Now since we have other currencies to trade it against there came the concept of forex in the traditional markets and fiat<>crypto exchanges in the bitcoin sector. While this leads to a speculative market it does not mean that the currencies came as investments. They are all different currencies in the first place. Today the people who are trading bitcoin and making profit from doing so are getting rich from their "investment" but it did not start out for that.

Think of it as you think suits you. Everyone has their own opinion here but this is most common explanation.

[Webberson]

Bitcoin in the future could serve as an alternative means of currency, but as at present, it does not necessarily have to be a currency before one can use it. As a matter of fact, its usage is widely adopted.
Bitcoin been seen as a currency or as an investment, one thing is that people will always involve on what will give them returns(profit) on their investment.

[mazdafunsun]

I think that it is not very important that BTC  is a currenc yfirst and asset second in short term, it is good enough that it gets more people to see it as investment first. It is a good thing that regulations allow BTC to be seen as asset and therefore invested in. In time ti will become more accepted as currency always or other coins will emerge to be payment option.

[yoseph]

You don't have to think that there's some sort of binary choice that Bitcoin will either be a currency or an asset, Bitcoin is a protocol, it doesn't care how it is used - all transactions are equal. You can't stop people from using it however they like, that's the beauty of Bitcoin. Satoshi described it as peer-to-peer electronic cash, but since then people have discovered other uses, and it's okay. The only thing that Bitcoin really needs is popularity - the more people use it, the more value it has, and the more value it has, the more PoW it can attract, and more PoW means more security.

I know popularity makes bitcoin price higher and I know more demand cause higher prices. You are right.
But Assume that today is 2050. People are still hodling bitcoins, But you cannot use bitcoin for your daily payments. Do you think people will still invest in something that has no visible and real benefit after over 40 years of existence? Do you think bitcoin will still remain popular if it is not used for payments?

Bitcoins being used as a currrency would be beneficial to the cryptocurrency in the long run but most users have come to the notion that it is always more profitable to hodl their bitcoins and wait for the next bull run where they will sell their bitcoins and  make some profits from it.

[Red-Apple]

Gold is increasing in use as a currency as the US dollar loses its status as a reserve currency.

a "currency" is something that you could use as a medium of exchange. meaning if you for example went to a restaurant and wanted to pay for your meal with that thing you could. so since you can not pay for launch with gold, then gold is not a currency.
in fact it has not been used as a currency for a very long time now.

[Lexurdania]

Hi, I created a thread two days ago. Here is the link.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5176246
I discussed about the effect of BAKKT on future of bitcoin and one of my concerns was how bitcoin is treated by BAKKT as an investment and store of value.
In some of replies I got, people believe that there is no problem if bitcoin remains an investment forever and won't be a currency.
What do you think? What will happen if bitcoin won't be a currency and it remains an investments like it is today?
I personally believe that people now thinks that bitcoin is a good investment because they believe that bitcoin will be a currency. In other words, bitcoin is the future currency. In my opinion, if bitcoin is not supposed to be a currency, it cannot survive forever as an investment. Why should people invest in something that has not any benefit?
What do you think?

When the price of bitcoin rises very high, for example $ 100k, people will not think of paying using bitcoin, they prefer to save it and hope that the rise in bitcoin prices will continue. For many people, bitcoin is a long-term investment or store of value and may be a substitute for gold

[auntyjmary]

The future of bitcoin is bright as a mode of payment that is accepted by all people. We are in the 21st century and e-commerce is the order of the day. The best description of bitcoin has always been a digital currency that can be used to make payments online.

[konfuzius5278]

I say this again also here. Bitcoin mainchain can not work properly as cryptocurreny.

Its too slow and too expensive. You can not pay in supermarket with Bitcoin without any company or add on. So only add on solutions make it a currency.

[iMark]

It is a currency, no doubt about that.

I guess what you are really implying to is about the usage.
Yes, that is one problem in many cases of crypto currencies also in altcoin section.
Merchants are still doubting the usage of crypto currencies specially Bitcoin.
The volatiliy is still their one of the most                                                                       

Thats right, in the outer packaging of bitcoin is currency, there is no doubt about that. but we know that only a few merchants accept payments with bitcoin, even we are very difficult to find it right? so do not be surprised if many people still question the actual function of bitcoin?

[pakhitheboss]

The concept was to create an alternate currency for everyone controlled by no one. Bitcoins's primary job was to make life simple for a common man when he is looking to transfer fiat from one location to another over the internet. To do so Bitcoin needed a Fiat value and for this it needed investment. Without it being a currency there will not be any investment.

This means Bitcoin not only has to become a good payment system but also needs to behave as an alternative currency to surpass Fiat and create its own value. At the moment it is considered more a commodity and compared with gold. Slowly the whole concept is changing to something else. This will lead to more HODLing and less trading.

[boris2470]

I think that bitcoin can be used in different ways because of its functionality. This creates an opportunity to choose a person what he likes best.

[Rozita]

It is a currency, no doubt about that.

I guess what you are really implying to is about the usage.
Yes, that is one problem in many cases of crypto currencies also in altcoin section.
Merchants are still doubting the usage of crypto currencies specially Bitcoin.
The volatiliy is still their one of the most                                                                      

Thats right, in the outer packaging of bitcoin is currency, there is no doubt about that. but we know that only a few merchants accept payments with bitcoin, even we are very difficult to find it right? so do not be surprised if many people still question the actual function of bitcoin?

I didn't ask about bitcoin application nor the purpose of its creation. I am aware of how bitcoin works, what are the benefits and how can people take the advantages of it. My concern was only about how bitcoin is being treated by people. My concern was considering bitcoin as an investment and being far from the main purpose of bitcoin. I also know that bitcoin is now accepted by few merchants as a payment system.

[Vishnu.Reang]

Satoshi Nakamoto designed Bitcoin as a digital asset which can be used for many purposes. Being a currency or a mode of payment is one of the purposes of Bitcoin. And it had made some headway as a currency during 2012-13, before the bull run occurred. After the first bull run, users started regarding it as more of an investment asset, or as a store of value.

[nightxglow]

Actually it's just normal if people treated bitcoin as investment, not as currency. Because well, currency is used as a method of payment, meanwhile bitcoin is far from that. It surely can be used to pay for something, but the problem is not many places accept bitcoin. This is what kinda prevent bitcoin to act as a currency. Meanwhile bitcoin value is great, and the price is kinda volatile so it's perfect for people that want to invest, or trade. Because they can buy btc in low price, and sell it in high price. So as long as not many places accept bitcoin, or bitcoin is common enough to be used in our daily activities, and as long as the value is still great, i think people will still consider bitcoin as investment only, not as currency.