Topic: Cryptocurrency, a Decentralized digital currency or commodity (Read 181 times)

How can crypto be a commodity if it has no other uses other than being money and when using it doesn't consume it, unlike with wheat or tea or oil. Crypto is really close to fiat currency - it's a currency that has no intrinsic value, no additional uses, and was created specifically to be a currency. Only difference is that coins like Bitcoin has limited supply, while government currencies have unlimited supply and the minting is centralized.

That's why there are exchanges. If some merchant dislikes the fact that the currency is more volatile than fiat, they can go and sell it the moment they receive it.

Point me to that one stablecoin you're calling an exception. I'm curious to know which altcoin / shitcoin / token on some of the two is stable per se.

I agree that those alternate currencies are very risky and there is no reason to use them, I highly suggest not using them as well. However, we need to remember that the best case for us today would be having a multiple option as well. So how do we do that? I feel like USDT is one of them, even though I do not trust tether, they have been proving everyone that they are as legit as it gets for a time being and there are users so that should be a currency to use.

And I think ETH is also nearly as big as bitcoin when it comes to trust as well so that could be used. So when you use those three, suddenly you have options to offer to offer to people and that could actually help you with a lot of stuff and should be able to actually profit you as well.

Ah, that ancient conundrum: crypto, a decentralized digital dough or a decentralized digital doodad? As a seasoned crypto-cowboy, let me lay it out for ya: it's kinda like both, and not really either, and a whole lotta in-between shenanigans.

But dig this: maybe it ain't no thang. Maybe we're all twisted up in labels and fancy-shmancy wordplay when the real goldmine's the untamed potential for game-changing innovations that crypto's packin'. The million-dollar question might be: how do we saddle up this tech wild stallion to forge a fairer, decentralized planet?

Yeah, the market's mood swings can be a wee bit... bonkers. But ain't that part of the charm? Like a rollercoaster of digital delirium, packed with twists and turns galore. Sure, the value might nosedive sometimes, but that's just how the crypto-cookie crumbles. Not a risk-taker? Stick to the snoozefest of traditional investments, buddy.

OP: crypto (Bitcoin) can be seen as a digital currency or asset but not all cryptocurrencies are considered decentralized digital currencies. When Satoshi designed Bitcoin, he said it was a way of putting ordinary people in charge of handling their finances in a decentralized digital manner. That's right, Bitcoin is decentralized, but not all crypto is decentralized, so if you are looking at the entire crypto market, you should know that you are not looking at a whole decentralized system. Although there are other coins that are decentralized, when talking about the future of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin is always at the top, and Bitcoin shows true decentralization in the crypto space. So if you make payment in Bitcoin, if the person is not in rush to use the funds, if they hold they can still make profit out of it.

If you receive payment with any crypto that you are not so sure of and that has high volatility, you always have the option to convert it to fiat.

Just as I mentioned above, Bitcoin is decentralized, and only Bitcoin I can speak of is decentralized, though there are other cryptos that are decentralized. They are digital currencies, you can still called them asset because you can have it as an investment, and you can also call it a digital commodity because a commodity is something that you can buy or sell or even carry about.  So you can still generalize them all to blockchain transactions.

It's actually what it is, a Currency aka Crypto-Currency(A cryptic currency ) rather than Crypto-Commodity.
 Due to the need to make it a proper money which should be a suitable store of value, it's built to be deflationary or to increase in price/value overtime, unlike most fiat currencies which tend to decrease in value and do not really qualify as proper money as people's longterm savings generally decrease in value due to inflation. So, Bitcoin has an edge in the Store of Value aspect and while stablecoins tend to be better for payments. Not withstanding, Bitcoin or Crypto in general is still very much in used for payments or medium of exchange in Crypto space. It's actually the most acceptable or preferred form of payment in this forum. If you go to the service section, much of the payments tend to be more in Bitcoin/crypto and less in stablecoin. I actually prefer to be paid in Bitcoin than stablecoin, and don't really care too much what the price would be afterwards. And I'm very much willing to pay people in Bitcoin as long as what I'm paying for is as valuable/important or more valuable/important. I think the problem could well be people unwilling to exchange Bitcoin for goods/services that are less valuable/important than Bitcoin, and less about price fluctuations... afterall, certain fiat currencies fluctuate as much thesedays yet still are used for payments without much complaining except maybe it's international payments rather than local, which is still part of the reason Bitcoin price fluctuation is easily noticed... It's paired with national currencies rather than being an internal/local thing.
I would be equally concerned about fiat to fiat pair/exchange having thesame issue you complain about. That's a fiat currency losing(or gaining) value against another fiat during/after exchange. So, how do you solve this, you could use services/marketplaces that adjust to the changes in their fiat prices accordingly .. Or you could automatically convert the Bitcoin to fiat currency when it's transferred, and vise versa (vise versa for those who don't want to hold on to fiat that loses value or fluctuate alot)

It's because you still view the price in USD equivalent, if you view in BTC equivalent, you will not ask the Bitcoin volatility, but you will be surprised if USD value is always decrease if you compare with Bitcoin.

Bitcoin can be a good solution if there's a business or countries which want to accept Bitcoin as payment, they shouldn't adopt other shitcoins because it's used to pump and dump. Today the price is $20/each, tomorrow it can be $1/each, it's really not good to use shitcoins as payment alternative.

If you research about crypto decentralization you might have an idea what it meant in crypto.There's a lot of meaning in different categories in crypto especially in currency and it's coin. Volatility of the market doesn't have an impact to its decentralization. It's the method itself that most of the users could control their own authority without the hands of services like the government. That's why it's consider decentralized since there's no one could control except you, however that's what crypto good despite the criminal activities that are spreading here such as fraud and scam.

stop tryna act cool by using those tech words

I'm not sure if we need to be so caught up in labels. Whether it's a decentralized digital currency or commodity, the fact remains that people are investing in it and using it for transactions. The market will continue to evolve, and we'll just have to adapt along with it.

When you say "cryptocurrency" you are talking about a very wide range of things which means no matter how you define it, that definition would be WRONG.
For example take the bitcoin and ethereum. Bitcoin is a currency while ethereum is a platform. So you can't define them both the same way. Now take any token, they are tokens that have no utility (are useless) so again they can't be defined under the same definition. And so on.

This means you have to be specific about what project you are talking about.
Bitcoin is a decentralized currency. In fact we could say it is the only one in this category.
Then we have altcoins which are mostly gambling tools meaning people are only interested in them to make "bets" on their prices and possibly make a profit from their pump. They have no more usage so they  can't be called "commodity" or anything like that.
Then we have centralized shitcoins that can't even give profit and are only created to scam people out of their money.

Of course this is also a generalized definition.

Well in reality, this has never stopped people from using bitcoin to pay for stuff starting from a cup of coffee to a house and to Seastead.

The cryptocurrency market is very volatile and can change constantly. Users need to consider carefully before deciding to buy and sell cryptocurrencies because the price can drop suddenly. Similarly, when a cryptocurrency rises in price, it can turn to an advantage for holders. Some people argue that cryptocurrencies are no different from a digital good and should not be treated as currency. However, others argue that cryptocurrencies can be used as a currency in some cases, depending on user acceptance and usage.

And if you are interested in buying and selling cryptocurrencies or want to learn more about the cryptocurrency market, I recommend you do your research and join online communities to discuss with people with experience in the field this area.

The OP does not seem to be very clear.


Bitcoin is a commodity because it is not dependent on a central authority that can increase or decrease supply at will. What is available is mined, like gold, and no more can be made. Almost all other altcoins (with the possible exception of stablecoins and a few others) are securities in the opposite way: they depend on a team that can increase supply, like a company's corporate debt bonds.

Different countries classify bitcoin differently. If I remember correctly, USA also thinks bitcoin is a commodity. At least that was the case few years ago, maybe they updated it later on. This is actually an important question because the way they classify bitcoin changes the way they tax your profits.

Simply because the government has realized that banning bitcoins and crypto is impossible, even if they did issue a ban, there would still be people using bitcoins somehow. Secondly, they have realized the benefits of bitcoin and crypto, banning not only brings no benefit but also causes heavy damage, such as being lagged behind the world because of blockchain, and digital technology, here is the trend that the world is moving towards. Moreover, they don't want to pass up a huge tax from us, so they need to accept it, and regulations will be attached.
I am still skeptical about regulations, fearing they will stifle the industry's growth.

The decentralization of Bitcoin is not dependent upon its level of volatility. If Bitcoin is volatile, it doesn't mean it is less or more decentralized. In the same way that if Bitcoin hits a certain degree of stability, it also doesn't mean it has reached a certain level of decentralization. Bitcoin's volatility is one thing, its decentralization is another.

As a currency, of course it is a concern that Bitcoin is volatile. But its decentralization is never a concern. It is what makes Bitcoin great.

Could  you give me a sourced document that mentions cryptocurrency is decentralized in general, please.

As I know, only Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency. Other cryptocurrencies are more or less centralized from their coin/token distributions to power distributions on their either Proof of Work or Proof of Stake or other algorithmed networks.

This discussion is non sense at the moment as far as there is no clear regulations about that. There are debates in the USA. congress about that as well in the world. We must wait for clearer laws and regulations on cryptocurrency.

Temporarily, we can see that in this bear market, latest two years, it is a first time we no longer see callings like Bitcoin will be banned globally, cryptocurrencies will be banned globally. That is very good signal for this industry when global governments are changing themselves to accept Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies one way or another.

Recently, I have begun to wonder on the crypto market volatility and how this Cryptocurrency in general is called a Decentralized digital currency . From another point of view which will be analysed here, I see Cryptocurrency as a digital commodity that functions as currency in some cases.
The fluctuations/volatility in the crypto market is unpredictable and Base on this fact, it becomes nearly impossible to make payment with most of the cryptos aside the stable coins. What happen if you send $100 worth of bitcoins to someone and the price dropped within a short period of time, though there are times it might rise and become an advantage to the receiver.

Whichever way it occurs, can this Cryptocurrency be referred to as Decentralized digital currency or Decentralized digital commodity base on the market volatility.

All crypto enthusiasts, come and relate your view base on your many years of experience.