Bitcoin is not a currency and this is why.

[elasticband]

bitcoin is still a currency coz it can be used in paying or sending money to someone

so by your definition paypal and western union are currecny as these can be used to pay for things and send value to someon

They still use banks or fiat. Try sending money without banks or fiat with them.

bitcoin highly involves both fiat and banks, i have spent the last year living from bitcoin hoard, could i do that without my bank or local currency being used....... No

[cbeast]

bitcoin is still a currency coz it can be used in paying or sending money to someone

so by your definition paypal and western union are currecny as these can be used to pay for things and send value to someon

They still use banks or fiat. Try sending money without banks or fiat with them.

bitcoin highly involves both fiat and banks, i have spent the last year living from bitcoin hoard, could i do that without my bank or local currency being used....... No

You can do a lot more than you could a year ago. You probably could live on Bitcoin alone if you wanted to bad enough. That's not my point. Bitcoin was designed to be a currency. That's why it's called Bitcoin and not Bitdraft.

[elasticband]

i see very little mention of creating a digital cryptocurrency https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

[cbeast]

i see very little mention of creating a digital cryptocurrency https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

Try the title

Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System

[elasticband]

i see very little mention of creating a digital cryptocurrency https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

Try the title

Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System

yes creating an electronic payment method similar to the way cash works in the real world. Not a mention of currency though.

[cbeast]

i see very little mention of creating a digital cryptocurrency https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

Try the title

Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System

yes creating an electronic payment method similar to the way cash works in the real world. Not a mention of currency though.

There is no mention of your hypothesis in Satoshi's paper. Your interpretation is wrong.

[elasticband]

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.

[cbeast]

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.

Cash is currency by definition. What cash do you think the paper is written about?

[franckuestein]

idk what you say.
Whether it is a currency or not I can buy things with it and execute transactions with everyone I want.

I'm sending that message listening to music with headphones bought with bitcoin. Problem?

But in your case continue thinking that's not a currency… haha 

[slaveforanunnak1]

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

my house is not a place to live in. It's a place to shower, to watch TV, to read, to fap, to sleep to get on my computer, to walk around, to sit, to fuck, to fart, to eat.....

[franky1]

bitcoin is still a currency coz it can be used in paying or sending money to someone

so by your definition paypal and western union are currecny as these can be used to pay for things and send value to someon

paypal and western union are not currency.. they are just money services businesses.. the currency that western union and paypal "service" is fiat,.,,,,, and its the fiat that is the currency..

a person, computer, business that does the transfering is not the currency... the item/product/data being transfered IS. for instance if i was to give u $10.. does that make me the currency.. no.. i just hold/and transfer the currency without being the currency myself..

so paypal/WU are not currencies. they are just holding/exchange SERVICES

bitcoin the protocol (software GUI) is not a currency, it is a service.
bitcoin the blockchain ledger signed transaction is the currency.

it does not matter for what reason bitcoins are being swapped. or by whom they are being swapped with.. as long as a collective of a few people atleast treat bitcoins as having a value then it becomes a currency.

anything can be a currency as long as people agree it has a value and an ability to swap between different owners

[iluvpie60]

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. 

What about people who put their money in a bank and don't spend it until retirement. derp.

[botany]

There may be a lot more people thinking of Bitcoin as an investment.
But as its utility as a currency (stable unit used to transfer value) increases, its value will increase.

[FederalReserveofWIP]

One of the things that makes Bitcoin's value so volatile - if consistently rising in price - is its very limited supply.  $200 million has been spent on equipment to mine BTC, whereas all BTC in existence (and even that which has been lost) has a value of $4.3 billion at current exchange rates.  (These exchange rates are not very deep, subject to some level of manipulation by holders of BTC, and also do not reflect lost bitcoins.)

This very tight money supply does give bitcoin an edge in retaining value.  However, it is a serious impediment to adoption as a money supply.  In order to be currency, a coin needs to be in high circulation.  It needs to have acceptance and be in usage.  While the bitcoin money supply is as tight as it is, this is very difficult for bitcoin to accomplish.

The Federal Reserve of WIP has a moderately loose target for the ease of the WIP money supply over time.  A moderate level of inflation will spur investment and usage of WIP.  For example, for inflationary reasons, I would greatly prefer to keep my WIP with the CBIP (the first accredited bank in the Federal Reserve of WIP trading system, and independent of the Federal Reserve of WIP), at a moderate interest rate, than to keep it directly on the ledger without any interest rate and lose value directly to inflation.

Secondly, by having a central policy that enables lending of WIP at reasonable interest rates - a central goal of the Federal Reserve of WIP - it can be one of the only coins actually available to borrowers who have some productive usage of them.

In both of the above senses, bitcoin currently fails.  While it is undoubtedly a currency in which the BTC remittance network is denominated, as a practical currency it has a difficult fight for adoption.

This difference will be easier and easier to see as our policies unfold.

We welcome any of your thoughts in the meantime.

Best regards:

Chairman of the Federal Reserve of WIP

[jabo38]

WIP

[Pierre11]

There may be a lot more people thinking of Bitcoin as an investment.
But as its utility as a currency (stable unit used to transfer value) increases, its value will increase.

The only reason that bitcoin's price "should" increase is due to its limited supply.

However, this isn't relevant until 2140 or so.

[Chavez]

There may be a lot more people thinking of Bitcoin as an investment.
But as its utility as a currency (stable unit used to transfer value) increases, its value will increase.

The only reason that bitcoin's price "should" increase is due to its limited supply.

However, this isn't relevant until 2140 or so.

Not at all. If the demand outstrips the supply the value should go up also. Imagine what will happen when the bitcoin reward gets halved and there's quadruple the amount of bitcoin users as there is now...

[DingoStar]

It is possible that bitcoin will never become a full-fledged currency. But judging by the latest news in the next few years the role bitcoin as a means of payment will gradually increase.

[jabo38]

It is funny that the first "real" crypto-currency, that can actually claim to be a "real" currency in that it is exchanged in a loop, might not be Bitcoin but the crypto of Ecuador.  Until now they have been using the USD, but now they will have a blockchain currency.  One can only assume that it might be locked in to the USD, which will be very interesting indeed.  The ramifications of having a digital blockchain USD equivalent, might really shake up the the cryptosphere. 

http://cointelegraph.com/news/113208/ecuador-officially-launches-its-own-e-money-system

[Possum577]

Of course there's a loop. I can buy something from you, you can buy bitcoin mixing service from bitmixer and then bitmixer can pay me for advertising.