Bitcoin is not a currency and this is why.

[jabo38]

A sustainable loop = currency
no loop = investment/commodity

With a currency I can give a token to a man at a market selling produce.  He can use it to pay school fees for his child.  The school can give it to the teacher for teaching, and then the teacher can give it back to me.  Then the cycle starts again.

Bitcoin isn't really like that right now.  Yes, sometimes people pay for things in Bitcoins, but far more often Bitcoins are either 1. held (hodl), or 2. used as a mediator from fiat -> bitcoin -> fiat, or 3. sometimes when we are lucky fiat -> bitcoin -> purchase at one of the few places accepting bitcoin -> fiat. 

There simply is no loop yet. 

Someday it is possible that Bitcoin might make the jump from commodity to currency, and I do think it will happen, but I am doubtful that will happen in 2015. 

[mailmansDOGE]

A sustainable loop = currency
no loop = investment/commodity

With a currency I can give a token to a man at a market selling produce.  He can use it to pay school fees for his child.  The school can give it to the teacher for teaching, and then the teacher can give it back to me.  Then the cycle starts again.

Bitcoin isn't really like that right now.  Yes, sometimes people pay for things in Bitcoins, but far more often Bitcoins are either 1. held (hodl), or 2. used as a mediator from fiat -> bitcoin -> fiat, or 3. sometimes when we are lucky fiat -> bitcoin -> purchase at one of the few places accepting bitcoin -> fiat. 

There simply is no loop yet. 

Someday it is possible that Bitcoin might make the jump from commodity to currency, and I do think it will happen, but I am doubtful that will happen in 2015. 

That's why everyone keeps on telling to people like you to stop holding it as a commodity, and start using as a currency. As the community will grow it will become more like a currency.

Today also in some exclusive cases i have seen bitcoin working as a currency. 1. I pay my friend for designing a website in bitcoin. 2- He tells about bitcoin to his other friend. 3. His other friend starts accepting bitcoin. 3- my friend pays his friend in bitcoin for buying him a drink 4- i sell marijuana and the other friend buys marijuana from me,  cycle complete.

You can make any cycle like this. Don't be so closed minded, hope for the best in the future.

[newIndia]

A sustainable loop = currency
no loop = investment/commodity

With a currency I can give a token to a man at a market selling produce.  He can use it to pay school fees for his child.  The school can give it to the teacher for teaching, and then the teacher can give it back to me.  Then the cycle starts again.

Bitcoin isn't really like that right now.  Yes, sometimes people pay for things in Bitcoins, but far more often Bitcoins are either 1. held (hodl), or 2. used as a mediator from fiat -> bitcoin -> fiat, or 3. sometimes when we are lucky fiat -> bitcoin -> purchase at one of the few places accepting bitcoin -> fiat. 

There simply is no loop yet. 

Someday it is possible that Bitcoin might make the jump from commodity to currency, and I do think it will happen, but I am doubtful that will happen in 2015. 

Bitcoin, as a medium of exchange, has gained a value that can be traded against real world commodities.

Bitcoin, as a protocol, servers a few purpose, those have been never served before.

[bg002h]

By the same rationale, there are many former currencies that were used for a time after they ceased to meet that criteria.

[El Emperador]

I agree with OP.
Right now Bitcoin is considered more an asset than a currency or a payment system, but remember we are at a very early stage.
With future mass adoption I think some will continue to consider BTC as a financial investment, some a currency and some a nicer payment system. Don't force the time.

[mymenace]

bitcoin


bit = digital

coin = currency

built to be used as a currency


bitcoin = digital currency


who cares if you hold, trade, invest

it is still a currency

wow

This is like saying
I do not use my house to live in, I rent it out therefore it is not a house


people trade the us dollar and hold it, invest in it, does this mean when they do this it is not a currency

[dsly]

I agree with OP.
Right now Bitcoin is considered more an asset than a currency or a payment system, but remember we are at a very early stage.
With future mass adoption I think some will continue to consider BTC as a financial investment, some a currency and some a nicer payment system. Don't force the time.

Exactly,Its still a grey area what exactly it is. I still consider it as a cool technology, better than paypal , if we had a fixed price

[princesocapuyo]

Well OP has a point I agree with. Bitcoin is not big enough to be considered a currency yet.

Also, you gotta remember it's digital. Holding a BTC is impossible, unlike a dollar or other currencies. To be a currency it first needs to be recognized as one by the masses, and most people have no idea what bitcoin is.

I still don't get why people say 2015 is gonna be bitcoin's "great year". It's still very early to say.

[elasticband]

bitcoin is a method of payment or transfer, it is not a currency and probably was never intended to be.

A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online
payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a
financial institution.

Search the white paper for the word currency, it's mentioned once and not when describing bitcoin.

[gjgjg]

It is possible to get your wages in btc. Its possible to pay your bills in btc. Its possible to buy many day to day items with btc...
The loop is there, it is difficult to do it day to day, sure. But you can say that about many currencies.

If i gave an American some swiss francs or Japanese yen it would be awkward to use it in 'the loop' you describe, but  not impossible - they are still currencies. 

[Meuh6879]

loop = fail

[elasticband]

although more than ever you can spend bitcoins with merchants, some big names included like Microsoft, most of these places just use the bitcoin network as a means of getting their preferred currency into their bank account faster and with less % skimmed off the top.

[gjgjg]

...
Also, you gotta remember it's digital. Holding a BTC is impossible, unlike a dollar or other currencies...

You could argue the same for usd and other currencies. The notes and coins are representative, just numbers on a piece of paper.  
Btc is typically just represented by numbers on a screen instead of paper, but isn't any less real.

Anyway, even if you disagree with the above : there are many people that never use cash, only visa cards. Eg in Norway they are talking about removing printed cash from circulation because 99% of people just use bank cards, is the Norwegian krone or any other currency any less real if the people who use it never have a note or coin in their hand?

[FattyMcButterpants]

The key word in the OP's argument is yet. I agree that bitcoin is not at the point now that someone can receive it for some good and then go buy a totally unrelated good at the market price. We are however getting closer to that point. What is stopping the "loop" from being possible is the lack of merchant adoption and the lack of b2b transactions possible with bitcoin.

We have however seen increases in merchant adoption with many major businesses starting to accept bitcoin, and some with a policy of retaining some of it to spend later and some with a policy to have all their expenses denominated in bitcoin

[gjgjg]

The key word in the OP's argument is yet. I agree that bitcoin is not at the point now that someone can receive it for some good and then go buy a totally unrelated good at the market price. We are however getting closer to that point. What is stopping the "loop" from being possible is the lack of merchant adoption and the lack of b2b transactions possible with bitcoin.

Yea, it seems that subtelty might be lost in the title of the thread ;p or maybe there's an existential aspect here...

If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around... Is it a person when the sperm meets the egg...
Is a currency a currency before everyone in your own personal day to day life accept it?

[mindrust]

btc is not a currency. yet.

And probably it will never be. Why? Because %99 of the people does not give a *uck about btc. They only care about how much value it has in $$$ and €€€, and some £££. People judge btc with the value it has in fiat. It is all about fiat.

It is only good for transferring big amounts of money tho. Which is a good thing only for drug dealers and terrorists

[BIT-Sharon]

Certainly Bitcoin is not a currency, because currency can't be invested, but Bitcoin can be invested. The true value of Bitcoin is not mostly related to the economy policy but the investors and the market. Bitcoin is not mainly used to purchase goods, and the value is not fixed. I think that's the big reason for your question. 

[Q7]

That is because acceptance rate is so low. We are simply not at that stage just yet and it's true there are not many places where you can buy something with bitcoin. We need auction sites like ebay or amazon to change that. If this happens it will be big.

[nelruk]

This is extracted from the Nakamoto's paper:

A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online
payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a
financial institution.

Say again BTC is not a currency and you're hiding the truth.

[Neodamus]

The loop will only be completed when Bitcoin is taken as a wage. However, there aren't many people willing to take Bitcoin as a wage because moving from something like the US Dollar to solely Bitcoin for survival is going to be very disruptive for someone's life. Only the brave/foolish (depending on your perspective) are going to be willing to accept this level of financial disruption.

There's still a lot of groundwork that needs to be laid before the loop is completed.