Can Bitcoin Truly Become a Global Currency?

[Foxworld]

   
Since Bitcoin was created, many believed it could become a universally accepted currency—borderless, fast, and independent from governments. But in reality, can Bitcoin ever be used for everyday purchases? Issues like slow transaction fees, network congestion, volatility, and merchant adoption remain challenges today. While solutions like Lightning Network continue to improve speed and cost, there’s still a long way to go. Do you think Bitcoin will ever function as a global currency, or will it stay more as an investment and store of value?

[Hatchy]

It's already a global currency, but the fact that it's yet to be globally accepted as a medium of exchange is still a major challenge.. with bitcoin you are able to carry out border less transactions, where you don't have to go through a long process to be able to send money across country. You spoke of network fee, but that isn't a major issue when it comes to bitcoin. We barely have any cases of congestion of network and the last one that happened was as a result of ordinals flooding the network, but it was resolved in no time. If you compare bitcoin transaction fees to the cost it takes to send money to someone not in your country, you would see how much better bitcoin is..

For me, bitcoin is already serving it's purpose and even more than it was designed to. You can decide to use bitcoin for anything you so wish, it very flexible both as a medium of exchange or a store of value. But many would argue that bitcoin isn't a good store of value due to it's volatile nature

[Ocham]

   
Since Bitcoin was created, many believed it could become a universally accepted currency—borderless, fast, and independent from governments. But in reality, can Bitcoin ever be used for everyday purchases? Issues like slow transaction fees, network congestion, volatility, and merchant adoption remain challenges today. While solutions like Lightning Network continue to improve speed and cost, there’s still a long way to go. Do you think Bitcoin will ever function as a global currency, or will it stay more as an investment and store of value?

The demand for Bitcoin in the current market has increased significantly. Big businessmen are investing here. Bitcoin is an international currency. It is already a global currency, and if you try to send money through banks, you might face a lot of hassle. However, with Bitcoin, the process is different—you only pay a small transaction fee and don’t have to deal with such difficulties. Moreover, Bitcoin transactions continue to grow steadily without any end in sight.

[_act_]

But in reality, can Bitcoin ever be used for everyday purchases? Issues like slow transaction fees, network congestion, volatility, and merchant adoption remain challenges today. While solutions like Lightning Network continue to improve speed and cost, there’s still a long way to go. Do you think Bitcoin will ever function as a global currency, or will it stay more as an investment and store of value?

I see bitcoin as a global currency since few years ago because a friend of mine sent bitcoin to me from aboard, within less than 10 minutes I saw it and I converted it to fiat.

Another one was a day I wanted to purchase something online, bitcoin was accepted and I was able to use bitcoin to make the payment. The site I bought that thing from was a foreign site.

Bitcoin is a global currency, it remain in the hands of people to make use of it that way or not.

But I think people will prefer to see bitcoin more as an investment.

[Rockstarguy]

Bitcoin was not created to replace fiat, so you don't need to expect it to be like the national currency. But Bitcoin is still global in its own right because it has the potential to play a global role in money.

 It is a currency that can be used by everyone at all times, in any country you find yourself in, so I wonder what could be more global than this in Bitcoin. If you are referring to Bitcoin as a global currency like your fiat currency, then just know it won't work. It is playing a better global role than every other currency.

[Lucius]

~snip~
For me, bitcoin is already serving it's purpose and even more than it was designed to. You can decide to use bitcoin for anything you so wish, it very flexible both as a medium of exchange or a store of value. But many would argue that bitcoin isn't a good store of value due to it's volatile nature

Bitcoin serves its purpose for those who want to use it as a currency, without having to ask anyone's permission to create a wallet and make a transaction. The problem for a lot of people is that they think a centralized system should give them permission to use a decentralized currency, which really doesn't make sense.

As for whether BTC is a good store of value, it still depends on when someone invested and how long they kept their coins - so for someone who did it 10 years ago the answer is definitely positive, while for those who invested at prices above $100k at the moment, that is not exactly the case.

[terrific]

Do you think Bitcoin will ever function as a global currency, or will it stay more as an investment and store of value?

Isn't it yet for all of those uses?
The world is already using bitcoin as a currency for payments and so = global currency.
And the use of it as an investment and a store of value will remain because it becomes scarcer these days.
Anyone who understands that it has a supply limit and if they have it right now, they're going to keep it.

[hd49728]

Since Bitcoin was created, many believed it could become a universally accepted currency—borderless, fast, and independent from governments.

Bitcoin by far since 2009 has achieved all these things, did you miss anything on Bitcoin development and adoption since 2009 especially in 2026?

But in reality, can Bitcoin ever be used for everyday purchases? Issues like slow transaction fees, network congestion, volatility, and merchant adoption remain challenges today.

Bitcoin blockchain has no longer been congested for a long time like many months since a last hype from Ordinals and Runes. Recent months, you can send bitcoin with very low transaction fee rates, even lower than 1 satoshi/vbyte but you must do some technical steps if wanting to enjoy under 1 satoshi/vbyte fee rate. Otherwise, if you don't want to go technical, just broadcast your transactions with 1 satoshi/vbyte fee rate.
How to make a bitcoin transaction and pay less than 1 sat/vByte.

While solutions like Lightning Network continue to improve speed and cost, there’s still a long way to go. Do you think Bitcoin will ever function as a global currency, or will it stay more as an investment and store of value?

There are other Bitcoin side chains, not only Bitcoin Lightning Network.
Sidechain Observer - Bitcoin L2 Projects & current state of development.

Lastly but very important, Bitcoin blockchain provides decentralization, no censorship, and best security for transactions.
https://howmanyconfs.com/

[asriloni]

Bitcoin will stay as a store value pretty much the same as gold. Its volatility has always been the problem that prevented it to be a global currency. However, who cares about that. As long as Bitcoin can still becomes a global store of value, that's enough. People can still freely transact it, owned it, and sell it whenever they want.

Calling it as a global currency, while no country introduces it as a legal tender. It seems we're still far away from that thing.

[Popkon6]

What you want to predict in the future is currently being done in Bitcoin, people buy and sell goods with Bitcoin, Bitcoin is used for daily purposes in all countries where Bitcoin is legal. And Bitcoin will last a long time and it is suitable enough for transactions, you can complete Bitcoin transactions very easily and in a short time.
Bitcoin is being used in almost many countries of the world, Bitcoin is used both secretly and openly, so Bitcoin plays the best role due to which there is a huge demand for Bitcoin and its price is also very high and is capable of reaching even higher prices in the future.

[Donk1]

Here is the thing op Bitcoin is a global digital currency, not a global paper currency Indeed this gives it an edge against fiat even now Bitcoin can be used for everyday purchase but it all depends on the adoption and it being legal tender ,so yeah even at that If you as a crypto enthusiast knows how to use Bitcoin for transactions , you have to also first consider if the person who you are purchasing the goods or material from makes use it or not. Because sure most businesses/companies use it for everyday transactions, but still not everyone knows how it works.

​Overall I will like to believe that Bitcoin was created to be a store of value and a new way of money that is free from the government or any third party. So to me it has already took it place as the number one digital currency globally That's just it.....

[Fiatless]

    Do you think Bitcoin will ever function as a global currency, or will it stay more as an investment and store of value?

Bitcoin is already a global currency. I say this because almost all the countries of the world know it, and some people in these countries might be openly or secretly dealing with it. Bitcoin is popularly used as an asset doesn't mean that there are no individuals or organisations that are using it as a currency. Volatility is one of the major reasons why many merchants don't accept it and unfavorable governemnt policies are another impediment. As Bitcoin becomes more stable and government begins to make fewer restrictive laws, Bitcoin might be accoeted by more institutions.

[uchegod-21]

I am glad that this time around we are not talking about the possibility of bitcoin replacing fiat in the world of finance. Although it is not yet official, bitcoin is already serving that purpose as a global currency. People already use bitcoin everyday for payments, although not the manner we wish it should be because volatility tends to stand in the way, which has many prefer it more as a speculative asset. Apart from this little limitation, bitcoin is borderless and controlled by no government, it can be a saviour when fiat fails.

[john_egbert]

Did you try to do it yourself before coming to such conclusions?

[Alphakilo]

I am glad that this time around we are not talking about the possibility of bitcoin replacing fiat in the world of finance. Although it is not yet official, bitcoin is already serving that purpose as a global currency. People already use bitcoin everyday for payments, although not the manner we wish it should be because volatility tends to stand in the way, which has many prefer it more as a speculative asset. Apart from this little limitation, bitcoin is borderless and controlled by no government, it can be a saviour when fiat fails.

In most places and regions, Bitcoin is often viewed as as an asset rather than a currency, that's why the U.S launched its strategic reserve to hold enough of it like gold.
In order aspects, it is more or less digital currency because of its use case for payment and completion of monetary transactions across border, with no third party involvement or huge fees.

I can say Bitcoin is becoming a global currency because of it becoming a norm of institutional and strategic reserve and payment option worldwide.

[crwth]

It varies by country, but in P2P scenarios, it's accepted, so it is already a global currency. From a country's perspective, it might not be. There are some legalities to making it a tender or something for a country, so it might differ in that regard.

Another factor is the everyday use. Yes, we have lightning, but the realistic approach right now isn't yet fully scalable in terms of how easy it is to set up for non-tech-savvy people. They might get discouraged if there are fees involved just to set it up.

We need to see it in a bigger picture, and the report by Chainalysis ^[1] shows which regions are leading the adoption, and this could serve as the reference for seeing it globally.


[1] - Chainalysis Geography of Crypto (2025)

[hero_the_bossman]

I am glad that this time around we are not talking about the possibility of bitcoin replacing fiat in the world of finance. Although it is not yet official, bitcoin is already serving that purpose as a global currency. People already use bitcoin everyday for payments, although not the manner we wish it should be because volatility tends to stand in the way, which has many prefer it more as a speculative asset. Apart from this little limitation, bitcoin is borderless and controlled by no government, it can be a saviour when fiat fails.

In most places and regions, Bitcoin is often viewed as as an asset rather than a currency, that's why the U.S launched its strategic reserve to hold enough of it like gold.
In order aspects, it is more or less digital currency because of its use case for payment and completion of monetary transactions across border, with no third party involvement or huge fees.

I can say Bitcoin is becoming a global currency because of it becoming a norm of institutional and strategic reserve and payment option worldwide.

This time, the adoption goes from top to bottom to some degree, but eventually, there will be more and more services that would allow to use BTC as it was intended - as an alternative to anyone who doesn't want to be in the palms of fiat.

[YOSHIE]

Can Bitcoin Truly Become a Global Currency?

No.......!
Discussions about Bitcoin and global currencies have been quite frequent, the main point of the discussion is that Bitcoin cannot be used as a global currency.

We have to understand that even though many governments currently choose Bitcoin as a reserve asset or adopt Bitcoin, in fact they know that Bitcoin is not physical and is risky, at any time the internet is lost, access will no longer exist, of course big problems will occur and there are many other reasons.

[john_egbert]

Can Bitcoin Truly Become a Global Currency?

No.......!
Discussions about Bitcoin and global currencies have been quite frequent, the main point of the discussion is that Bitcoin cannot be used as a global currency.

We have to understand that even though many governments currently choose Bitcoin as a reserve asset or adopt Bitcoin, in fact they know that Bitcoin is not physical and is risky, at any time the internet is lost, access will no longer exist, of course big problems will occur and there are many other reasons.

If the Internet is gone, I would say that it's a doomsday scenario anyway, for fiat and BTC alike, e-commerce and all the rest of the stuff being dead would hit hard anyway..

Everybody would regulate usage of BTC on the national level, so it wouldn't be like the dollar anyway.

[sleepfirefly]

bitcoin is borderless but when the governments interrupted there’s more challenges now in some particular regions but bitcoin has always been a global currency as it can bypass restrictions that banks may have, it is only recently that bitcoin has been a store of value