Let's say we live in a perfect world, where citizens still made the decisions on political matters and you as an individual were given the choice to vote on a subject.
If the choice were given to you, would you vote for Bitcoin to be accepted as a currency or a commodity? Your governments wants to accept Bitcoin, but they do not want a multi-function and open defined technology. They only give two options on the ballot paper.
1. Define Bitcoin as a
Currency2. Define Bitcoin as a
CommodityYou have to remember that the definition will determine the future and the taxes that would be applied to the technology.
Where will you draw your X ?
Let's see what would happen, if people were given a choice. ![Roll Eyes](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/rolleyes.gif)
We can only dream about such world where people were given choice to decide on political and administrative matters. But it will never become a reality. However, to answer your question, I will define bitcoin as a commodity instead of a currency system. Let me explain why,
1. Parallel currency system is not required:
Assuming the government already has an established fiat currency system so accepting bitcoin as a currency would just add another parallel currency system. It would just be an additional way to pay or receive money. So that is not a very effective way of leveraging the power of bitcoin.
2. Commodity won't restrict bitcoin to be used as a currency:
I would like to see bitcoin as an investment. This will provide few additional benefits to the current economic system. Because commodity will attract new investments from the market and due to the price fluctuations, it will provide a source of income to the speculators. Making bitcoin a commodity will certainly not restrict its usage as a currency. People can still use it as a currency between the willing parties.
3. Extreme price fluctuation is not good for economy:
Yes, you heard that right. Extreme fluctuation can only be helpful if the price goes up and never goes down. But Bitcoin's price can go down to any extent within a very short period of time. So look at the below scenario,
Today's Bitcoin price: $1000
I accepted payment of 1 bitcoin in my store for a goods that costs $1000.
Tomorrow's bitcoin price: $800
I will make direct loss of $200 within a day. Similarly I would make profit of $200 if the price goes up to $1200.
This kind of extreme fluctuations is good for speculators but not good for the sellers of goods and services. It can bring good returns as well as great losses. We don't yet have organized hedge funds who can provide risk covers and not everyone is expert in it.
Even though bitcoin was initially started as a currency but we have deviated from that path long back. It has become an excellent but risky investment choice. So making it a commodity will pave the way for new possibilities.