Bitcoin as a "Global Unit of Account"?

[Abiky]

Have your ever imagined a world where Bitcoin is the predominant currency for mainstream payments? A world where Fiat no longer exists as people rely on Bitcoin as a global unit of account. That means, people will no longer value things based on Fiat, but rather Bitcoin itself. You would pay for things directly on Bitcoin (for instance 0.000025 BTC for a cup of coffee) without the need to worry about its current exchange rate (or price) relative to Fiat. If that happens, then Bitcoin will "stabilize" effectively proving its use as digital cash. With a country like El Salvador adopting Bitcoin as legal tender, we may be one step closer to "hyperbitcoinization".

Do you think it's possible Bitcoin will become a "global unit of account" in the future? If not, why? What would a world without Fiat really look like? Your input will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[1714943368]

1714943368

[1714943368]

1714943368

[mk4]

It may or may not, and while some are betting on it, I'd consider Bitcoin to be "successful" regardless if it becomes a predominant unit of account or not; or at least, not the "main" one. It's a lot more likely for merchants pricing stuff in the local currency by default, but having BTC/sats as an alternative currency for pricing; basically the way how some  eCommerce sites do it right now.

[Upgrade00]

Do you think it's possible Bitcoin will become a "global unit of account" in the future? If not, why?

Yes, It is possible for bitcoin to become a global unit of account in the future if it can become stable. If bitcoin can become stable, there would not be a need to check coin trackers for the current valuation as the price is not volatile, if you bought a coffee with a certain amount of bitcoin today, you will expect to buy it with the exact same amount the next week.

What would a world without Fiat really look like?

In my opinion, it cannot function. In a completely utopian society, maybe it will be possible, but such does not exist.

[OgNasty]

Bitcoin as a global unit of account is an idea so bad that I don’t think it’s reasonable to even imagine such a thing. Think about coupons or sales. How would you even advertise price of anything knowing it could change so drastically from the time someone leaves their house until they get to the store. Nobody would be spending anything. There’s a reason fiat Ponzi schemes work so well. Trash money makes for good spending and high velocity.

[JayTrain]

Have your ever imagined a world where Bitcoin is the predominant currency for mainstream payments? A world where Fiat no longer exists as people rely on Bitcoin as a global unit of account. That means, people will no longer value things based on Fiat, but rather Bitcoin itself. You would pay for things directly on Bitcoin (for instance 0.000025 BTC for a cup of coffee) without the need to worry about its current exchange rate (or price) relative to Fiat. If that happens, then Bitcoin will "stabilize" effectively proving its use as digital cash. With a country like El Salvador adopting Bitcoin as legal tender, we may be one step closer to "hyperbitcoinization".

Do you think it's possible Bitcoin will become a "global unit of account" in the future? If not, why? What would a world without Fiat really look like? Your input will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

you and I understand that bitcoin is better in every sense of fiat, and most countries understand this, but they do not want to change today's system of exchange of values, because this will undermine what they have been building for many years, I would not mind paying with bitcoin, most here are for two hands, but large countries are not willing to accept bitcoin.

[Imran232]

It may be possible or not.

If possible, then why?

If the government understood the power of this technology,
If the government finds the solution to its problem, what should the government think the problem is for them?
It needs time, but it will happen as a digital currency. Because the government also understands that the future is tech and bitcoin is the most advanced tech in this world yet.
Because of future demand, governments might accept bitcoin as a digital payment system.
When a country saw that others country accept it and they made progress their youth made progress they might be also approve for this reason because of competition.
 
If not possible, then why?

First of all, it's a non-authorised problem.
There is no way to track the owner of the balance, and the government is unable to take the taxes.
Because of the blockchain's nature, the government is unable to learn about any money laundering issues or criminal activity payment transactions, which is a major concern for the government.
If anything wrong happens with this technology, the governmentwill have to face the problem with the opposition party. 
There has high volatile problem that is why goernment cant get courage to accept it because if normal users invest their and saw the down market which might be problematic. 
 
Thats it . What i am thinkng about this. Others opinion might be different. Thank you
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[Upgrade00]

Bitcoin as a global unit of account is an idea so bad that I don’t think it’s reasonable to even imagine such a thing. Think about coupons or sales. How would you even advertise price of anything knowing it could change so drastically from the time someone leaves their house until they get to the store. Nobody would be spending anything. There’s a reason fiat Ponzi schemes work so well. Trash money makes for good spending and high velocity.

Do you think bitcoin would always be as volatile as it is now? I personally do not expect it to be, Bitcoin is still a novel currency and as such the value is still open to speculation as it is going through price discovery.
Imo, the idea is not unrealistic, nothing about bitcoin could have been predicted and who is to say what would happen in the next century.

[titular]

Yes, every-day bitcoin purchases will eventually be quite mainstream. Global? Probably not.

The honest truth is that countries will fight for their CBDC's role in their respective economy. Many countries will not be please to see a mass exodus of their currencies users. To combat this they (like India) will aim to ban bitcoin as a medium of exchange, but not as an asset class.

[cr1776]

Have your ever imagined a world where Bitcoin is the predominant currency for mainstream payments? A world where Fiat no longer exists as people rely on Bitcoin as a global unit of account. That means, people will no longer value things based on Fiat, but rather Bitcoin itself. You would pay for things directly on Bitcoin (for instance 0.000025 BTC for a cup of coffee) without the need to worry about its current exchange rate (or price) relative to Fiat. If that happens, then Bitcoin will "stabilize" effectively proving its use as digital cash. With a country like El Salvador adopting Bitcoin as legal tender, we may be one step closer to "hyperbitcoinization".

Do you think it's possible Bitcoin will become a "global unit of account" in the future? If not, why? What would a world without Fiat really look like? Your input will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

It certainly could be a parallel system for payments over time.  As time progresses and people see the value of their fiat holdings inflating away, it could take more and more of the market for it.  It really is a simple question:  who do you trust to store the value of your assets?  Math or a corrupt centralized fiat based central bank that is beholden to politicians?


People are not stupid regardless of what the so-called "elites" tend to think (e.g. Bette Midler).  They can figure out pretty quickly that the politicians only have the politician's best interest at heart, not the people's best interest.  Sure they can fool a lot of people for a while - look at AOC, Bernie, Chavez, Lenin, Stalin, Mao and their ilk - but long term people realize that they are purely selfish authoritarians who are hoodwinking them.

[bL4nkcode]

This kind of world will only exist in the urban area of a country (or on our mind), but those country place that internet is not a thing, slow, or not fully accessible, I mean in the backwoods, then there's no way people can pay, buy, things they needs.
 
But if it happens then rural places doesn't exist anymore at that time.

[boyptc]

Yes, possible for a certain places but online, it's very likely.

Units could be named as btc, satoshi or any where people are confident. The most important part is that everyone knows the unit of bitcoin for everyone to easily understand.

And whatever is they're confident of using, go for it as everyone can convert that unit to the unit they're confident and aware of.

[Artemis3]

Just use the satoshi directly, its not a big deal.

The bitcoin is just shorthand for "a 100 million satoshis".

Why say "0.000025 BTC" when you could just say "2500 satoshis"?

Its not that hard, countries like Japan and South Korea don't bother with cents, that's obsolete.

[Darker45]

I really doubt this. The highest success that Bitcoin could probably achieve is that it will become a global reserve currency. That's in addition to it being also used alongside fiat as acceptable payment in all countries around the world. That means Bitcoin is the only money that you could use anywhere in the world without having to make conversions first.

But this does not mean that fiat will completely perish. Fiat will evolve. Meaning, the prices of goods and services are still offered in fiat as well. I'm saying this because it is unimaginable that governments would let go of perhaps the largest power they have and that's the power over money.

[syedakhlaque]

Bitcoin is a Global unit of acoount . Because it a business adopted by from all corner of the world. So it is a global business and its account is a Global kind of account. So it is also possible that BTC in the future will become a Global currency or a Global cryptocurrency. So the future of the BTC looks very bright because the number of BTC users is continuously increasing. Youngsters, old or teenager are eagerly joining this business. So in future, its account will be called "Global Unit of Account"?

[nullama]

The first step would be to start using sats instead of ₿

If you're from the US, UK, Australia, NZ, and others, it might seem like there are many zeros when using sats, but that's pretty common in many countries:

https://www.fiatmarketcap.com/

Using sats is also usually linked with lightning usage. That means people will become more used to fast, instantaneous transfers with lightning.

Businesses might start posting the price in sats and local currency in their screens, like McDonald's self checkout for example.

People over time already are used to seeing the fiat prices slowly going up. It would be normal as well to see the sats price to go down. It will be a great thing to see actually.

We're still not there yet, definitely. But I can imagine a world with that, where you get paid in Bitcoin, and use Bitcoin to pay for stuff. Because they're both linked of course, when you pay in Bitcoin for something, someone is getting paid in Bitcoin. And more interestingly, we already have ways to almost get there. Strike now gives people in the US and El Salvador the opportunity to get paid in Bitcoin. Basically you give the bank details from the Strike app to your employer, and set how much percentage of your salary to be converted into Bitcoin, with no extra fees.

It will be a great world to live in. For now, we're in a transition phase. The Bitcoin Standard will be amazing. The earlier you hop in, the better you'll be in the future.

[bbc.reporter]

I am shaking my head on this proposal. If the whole world agreed and made BTC the global unit of account, I reckon it would make it appear that the amount of everything you can buy to be volatile. 1 cup of coffee at present would be 10% more or less on the next week, 100% or more on the next month during bull markets. This will cause stablecoins to be the safe haven hehehehe.

[cabron]

Probably not possible if it's not going to be the global reserve currency. But because local currencies will also not disappear, it will just be as is that you could use either an asset or currency.

I'd like to think BTC will be accepted anywhere though, it won't matter if the price will not be as the unit but the local currency as long as it can be used very casually just about anywhere.

[perfect999]

Do you think it's possible Bitcoin will become a "global unit of account" in the future? If not, why? What would a world without Fiat really look like?

I get what you’re trying, but I can’t really imagine the world with just one asset being used. Bitcoin has a fixed supply and it might get to a point where that might become another problem for people around the world, unless maybe when it gets to that time they will look for a way to fix it, maybe by increasing the amount of supply? This topic has been discussed several times in this forum.

I am of the opinion that all can stay, and people should be completely free to choose for themselves at every moment what they want to make use of. And same way, stores can decide whether to display their product prices in BTC or in USD, or whatever currency.

[NeuroticFish]

Do you think it's possible Bitcoin will become a "global unit of account" in the future? If not, why? What would a world without Fiat really look like? Your input will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

1. For something like this to happen, I expect that we may need Bitcoin price fluctuate much less.
2. Don't forget that as long as the main currency of a country is fiat, the shop will have the prices primarily in the country's fiat and then converted to all other currencies.

So no, unfortunately I don't expect the prices be shown primarily in bitcoin. Not everywhere.
For all the countries give up their tools for inflation (i.e. stealing money) we need a powerful change. Maybe even a radical change in the way some people end up taking decisions for the countries.

[stompix]

That means, people will no longer value things based on Fiat, but rather Bitcoin itself. You would pay for things directly on Bitcoin (for instance 0.000025 BTC for a cup of coffee) without the need to worry about its current exchange rate (or price) relative to Fiat. If that happens, then Bitcoin will "stabilize" effectively proving its use as digital cash.

Hihi, no you won't have problems with the price in USD or your local currency but that would still mean the prices in BTC will not be stable themselves, and they will never be. If everyone, every single person would ditch fiat and stick to a limited supply of coins depending on the number of goods transacted or the size of the economies on global level prices will still be floating around, so there won't be true stabilization.
If for example we would only had bitcoin during this covid mess prices would still have gone up, it's a matter of supply and demand so although 1 bitcoin would have bought you more goods than the equivalent in USD over a longer period it would still have been less than a year an ago. Same for the other situation where you have an economic boom and it will be more valuable in terms of what you can buy with it.

The 0.000 thingy is a false problem anyhow, switch to satoshis, if poeple can deal with paying 20000 VND for one liter of gas they for sure will have no problem paying 5000 sat for the same.