Topic: Difference Between Fiat Currency and Bitcoin (Read 322 times)

What actual real-world difference does that make? In most countries (say like the USA) it's perfectly legal to buy things with Bitcoin. What you seem to be asking for here is that you want a central government to force people to use Bitcoin. I'm not sure anybody is going to do that, nor would we want them to.



Sovereign currency can (and usually does) have a physical manifestation, but most money (in terms of dollar volume) is actually moved around digitally these days.


Most people who invest in crypto use a central entity like CoinBase or Binance or their brokerage account. Most people don't like the idea of being able to physically lose a big chunk of their life savings, and instead want somebody else to physically guard it for them, and to base their access based on their identity.

People usually only like physical cash when it's a small part of their wealth e.g. the money inside of their wallet. And they do this for the convenience of being able to make cash payments.



Bitcoin can be permanently lost which is the same as destroying it. Indeed, we actually have no idea how much actual spendable Bitcoin exists in the world, and it's likely less than the theoretical supply and it might even be a lot less.

You've got a spoiled table. It's not your fault, it's a feature of the forum engine in displaying tables. Edit your post, replace what you have now in your post with what is written in my quote and you will have a normally displayed table.

In the first place, I must say this article has been able to expose the difference between the latter and the sooner. However it is pertinent to say that although fiat is accepted anywhere and anytime which makes users transact comfortably, you will have to consider portability. Fiat could not be as portable as bitcoin for example carrying huge cash about, while bitcoin does not require meeting or traveling before payment can be made.

Good comparision. But:

1: Bitcoin is now getting more adoption and it is accepted as a legal tender of one country "El Salvador"
5: Bitcoin has a high transaction fee that is true. but sometimes fiat currency transaction fee are way higher than Bitcoin. some Banks charge higher to send funds to another bank.
6: Fiat currency can be stored in a person's physical wallet too. and can be stored in his home safe deposit

also your thread needs to be formated properly. it is a bit difficult to read it.

Fiat money is very good cause it will use us in our daily needs and wants, also fiat use as our salary so the government is allowed all countries have fiat. While Bitcoin is a digital currency and most of it is for investment cause we all know that if we are investing in Bitcoin we have a lot of profits in a long run . Anyways but crypto currencies are good enough and it will become much better if we have that two fiat and crypto.

Fiat currency is the money given out by governments of various countries, they are in physical form that can be held by every individuals. Fiat currency is a legal tender which are supported and it's value is attached to the currency signed by the government and controlled by central banks,i.e being centralized and stable. While Bitcoin transaction is decentralized P2P and not regulated and controlled by anyone or government instead been supplied automatically increased and distributed currency around the world, Bitcoin is a virtual currency and a digital asset which gets it's asset value from it's native blockchain also officially controlled by blockchains, computer code,it's value can change in large amount .

You have discuss a detail comparison between fiat currency and Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is a digital currency their price changes continuously, but fiat currency is a stable coin.. I am not criticizing any of the currency. But both currencies are essential for us.

Fiat currency of crypto currency they have both pros and cons so no matter what arguing we do it depends on the people what currency they will use, but one thing's for sure even crypto currency become powerful in the future fiat currency will still be around because we can't replace it, its like an alternative currency when things go bad or if there is a problem when using digital currency, as I said both currencies have pros and cons, digital currency rely on electricity and internet what if there is a phenomenal that will wipe both these things? How could we access our digital currency? While in fiat, fiat currency is a tangible currency so it is prone from being destroyed or lost. So from there we can also see the big difference of these two currencies, it will depends on the people on what they will use and what is more convenient for them.

I think the big problem is the relation between fiat and Bitcoin:

Short term transaction - here I see no problem. Lets say I want to send 100 USD from Europe to a friend in the US, then I can buy Bitcoin, send them to the firend and the friend converts it back to USD, apart from fees no major risk of losses.


Middle term transaction for services- If I get my salary in USD but have a contract for my rent stating a fixed anount of bitcoin, this can lead to major issues, because if the price for Bitcoins doubles, the amount of USD from my salary to pay for rent doubles too...

Longterm vIew : If I make savings for lets say to buy a house, in fiat I can take into account a kind of average inflation rate for my savings and plan with it. With Bitcoin the amount I get in USD for example when I want to buy the house, depends purely on possible wide swings of the Bitcoin price at the time I need the money. Can go in my favor, but also maybe massively against me...

From day one bitcoin is been launched its very clear that the margin between bitcoin and fiat currency is not close or similar, because bitcoin is a digital currency and also a decentralized one, whereas fiat currency is a currency that have to do with tradition and government is been use fiat currency,  bitcoin is newly currency that fluctuates in value and its value maybe appreciate or neither downgrade at any point in time, so therefore it's quite well that the currency is different from bitcoin, we don't know how long bitcoin can stay or it will be abolish base on it ways, whereas fiat currency will remain to reign

The main difference between fiat currency and Bitcoin is that fiat currency is backed by a government or central bank, while Bitcoin is decentralized and not backed by any single authority. Fiat currency is usually issued in physical form, such as banknotes and coins, and is regulated by a central bank. It can be used to pay for goods and services, and its value is determined by the government that issues it. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is a digital currency that is not issued by a central bank or government. It is created through a process called mining, and its value is determined by supply and demand. Bitcoin can be used to pay for goods and services, and it's not widely accepted as form of payment....



goods and services, but it is not widely accepted as a form of payment. Another difference is that fiat currency is inflationary, meaning that its value decreases over time. Bitcoin, on the other hand, has a fixed supply and cannot be inflated. This is one of the main reasons why some people view Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation. Finally, fiat currency is regulated by governments and central banks, while Bitcoin is not subject to any such regulation. This can be both a strength and a weakness of Bitcoin, as it means that its value is not subject to manipulation by central authorities, but it also means that there is no guarantee of its service..

In most cases,it is clearly stated that whatever has a good feature also has a bad feature.Most of us use fait currency while some make use of bitcoin to carryout thier transactions.One thing I admire greatly about cryptocurreny Is the authenticity and uniqueness that it possess.
  While fait currency suffers issues like counterfeit and replication of fait currency,bitcoin doesn't have to be replicated;it cannot be faked as it remains in its unchanging state.
 It's essential to recognize that cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies need not be in a competition,cryptocurrencies emergence has really transformed the world let's just understand the unique features of both of them to co-exist for a financial balance.

point 7, bitcoin cannot be destroyed
in crypto there is a term burning here the aim is to reduce the supply of certain coins, for the purpose of increasing the price of certain coins the burning is carried out. In my opinion this is the same as destruction

1.Fiat currency is accepted worldwide as a legal tender.

1.Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that is not accepted in most countries as a legal tender.

Yes it might appear not acceptible in some countries but it doesn't stop it's usage as it operates digitally only. Bitcoin is unstoppable💯😎

3.Fiat currency has an unlimited supply.

3.Bitcoin has a limited supply.

Yes of cause an this contributed to the continuous grouth of Bitcoin

There will be other supporting alternatives and Bitcoin is a guarantee if it still doesn't work properly.
Of course the electricity will not always go out or the internet will disappear, the government has thought about this and there will not be a total power outage, it will still be alive.
Moreover, if the Earth were truly completely dead, it might no longer have any inhabitants or be abandoned by its inhabitants and be the end of everything.

OK a real world example: 

I prefer to pay in cash and I had a co-worker who always payed with a credit card.  One day in the canteen the card reader was not working, so no food for the co-worker, but food for me....I gave my co-worker a "loan" in cash  so he could feed himself....

In this regard Bitcoin is similar to credit cards...

So technical issues are not always the end of the world 

@Fiasem20 The first thing you should learn is how to use BBcode for creating a table. If not then your post would not look suitable to read as your existing post is looking now. I won't be going into BBcodes as if you do a general search on Google you would easily find a tutorial about it. Frankly, I did not read your post as the way it has been presented does not interest me to go through it.

As per your title, I would say the biggest difference between Bitcoin and any fiat currency in the world can be only understood when anyone understands the difference between centralized control and decentralized control. A fiat currency is controlled by a central entity, typically the government, whereas Bitcoin is not controlled by any central entity. Its value is determined by the community.

The conclusion is you're pointing Bitcoin is decentralized, but unfortunately most people use Bitcoin like a centralized asset e.g. hold their coins in Binance. It's really sad how Satoshi invents something, but people didn't even care with the purpose.

It's only happen if you exchange at the same country, but if you're exchange from different country, Bitcoin fees is cheaper and faster than banks.

If the world lost electricity and internet, the problem isn't only happen for Bitcoin holder, but it's a total chaos to the entire countries.

I've done some correction in the thread, thank you all the correction.

With Bitcoin, we only lose our bitcoins if we lost private keys.

With altcoins, with their smart contracts, we can lose our altcoins like stable coins or tokens because developers can seize it, burn it with smart contracts. I don't know it is smart contract for users or for developers, hackers and governments.

PSA: Most Stablecoins Can Be Frozen, Even in Your Own Wallets.

Some of what you have mentioned as similarities and differences can actually be only applied to bitcoin a lot of the replies have already mentioned what you should change but i would like to add that the main difference between fiat and cryptocurrencies is that fiat is issued by the government meanwhile cryptocurrencies are operating on a technology called blockchain

Maybe you should start introducing bitcoin first and its differences with fiat because almost all other cryptocurrencies are just derived from bitcoin itself other cryptocurrencies aside from bitcoin are already called altcoins and even though a lot of these cryptocurrencies are like i said derived from bitcoin, some of them still have some distinct features like how some altcoins are not decentralized and many more

Because the bulk of bitcoin coins are decentralized and experimental, they are all highly volatile. The government clearly controls
and backs fiat currency.

When it comes to bitcoin transactions, transparency is beneficial because anybody can see the transaction via the address and network used,
and many blockchains can be used. In contrast to fiat currency, they establish monetary policy.

Fiat doesn't take only physical form, it could also be online or take the form of CBDCs. You can decide not to use physical fiat and can still engage in financial transactions without restrictions.

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency but it is unique this why any coin beside Bitcoin are called altcoin. Many developers have tried to introduce cryptocurrencies that will compete with Bitcoin but none of them are close to its class.

Well if you prefer to pay high fees then you can but if you have an option to use Lightning Network or Segwit supported wallet address I think you can transact faster with lower fees.

Banks also has their online banking wallets but why do we really have to compare both when they have different functions and technology both of them rely on widespread consumer trust though.

Op, to me bitcoin is not a cryptocurrency as I see it, this posses some quality that most crypto does not have, starting from security, identity being personal and decentralization itself, that's why till tomorrow some people see altcoin and shitcoin as a scam, Bitcoin exist in a solid foundation but other crypto currency don't, they only digital asset that's well know and recognised by many is bitcoin, despite the volatile nature of this currency, it controls other cryptocurrency, it also has value than them, calling Bitcoin crypto is not ideal to me, I prefer you call calling it digital asset.

Yep, the big advantage for cryptocurrencies is the freedom of doing business over the internet. I mean if you take payments via credit cards you depend on the credit card companies to accept your business model, there are long lists of business model that credit card companies don't support.

With Crypto your business model is not relevant, it is really only between the seller and buyer.

Each has its pros and cons, we can say that cryptocurrencies are superior to fiat currencies, but that does not mean that cryptocurrencies have no disadvantages and are 100% perfect.

In your example, it's true that crypto would be useless if we didn't have cell phones, computers, or internet, but fiat would work. But if in case, you move far and need to carry a large amount of money like millions of dollars, or the country is at war and you need to move your assets. Or you need to transfer money abroad...it's clear that cryptocurrencies are completely superior to fiat currencies and much more convenient.

Furthermore, the goal of the created cryptocurrency is not to completely replace fiat, and it is only an alternative. Both will coexist and not replace each other.

Almost everything you said here is wrong, some of it was pointed out and I want to focus on 6 and 8.

Cost of transfer depends on a lot of things. For example for fiat when you use the banking system it could actually be extremely high specially for high amounts. However it could be extremely low when you use bitcoin since the only cost is the on-chain fee and it is calculated based on byte size not the amount meaning you can transfer billions of dollars worth of bitcoin with only a couple of cents worth of fees.

As for destruction, cryptocurrencies can be destroyed too. Look up burning coins and there is even something called Proof of Burn. There is also people making mistakes and losing their keys which is practically the same as destroying coins.

In my own opinion, it is good to see that in this era we are presented with a good option...one that can have a big impact on people's financial future and that is cryptocurrency. However, this is not a perfect thing most especially in the applications of it in the real world well just like the fiat currency under the control of the entity or the government behind it. As for fiat currency, you don't have to know many things before you can use it all because it is physical you bring in the paper money to any store, to the bank and you don't need to bring anything else to make a transaction. Compare that to cryptocurrency, here you must have some basic knowledge with technology behind it otherwise you run the risk of losing your coins or tokens.

Your post is very bad composed. Its content is inaccurate at many points.

Newbies Stop Teaching When You Need To Learn.

The above topic is a reminder for newbies include you, to focus on learning than trying to make threads to each others. You can come back when you have better knowledge and are able to compose better educational threads.

Some suggestions if you want to use tables on Bitcointalk

First, you are incorrect in claiming that not all cryptocurrencies are decentralized, because all of the cryptocurrencies listed here, including Dcash and CNY, are centralized coins.

So fiat currency and cryptocurrency cannot be the same thing since cryptocurrency has a lot of opportunities, whereas fiat currency does not, in my opinion and perspective on the topic, which I honestly understand. Because, in terms of security, cryptocurrency is prone to technical exploits and is based on encryption, whereas fiat is safeguarded by government rules and infrastructure.

For me the big difference between Fiat currency like banknotes/ coins and Cryptocurrencies is in the requirement for electricity to use crypto. Fiat works always....

As an example:  If you travel to an island without internet connectivity, how do you want with crypto to pay for your food ??

So for cryptocurrencies to work you need access to a technical infrastructure for the buyer and the seller, with fiat banlnotes or coins you just need a willingness to accept the form of payment, works everywhere, everytime - 3 month power outage - no problem...

Firstly it is good to establish that they are both currencies that are mentioned have closely the same functions and an end goal which is an exchange between goods and services. Knowing fully well about this, it is easy to understand the differences of both currencies lies on one advantage or the other, that they poise to improve both of them at a point in time.

1. Unlike cryptocurrencies that operates in an open-source cryptography technology which makes it extremely difficult to be controlled by cabals in the financial institution, the fiat currency is absolute issued and controlled the government and in the hands of the cabals in the financial institution. To a large extent these are the guys that move the market

2. Cryptocurrencies can also be refers to as the much needed alternative that was a monumental thought by the founder Satoshi to bring about freedom. Now, that we have the opportunity to own our funds.

Aside the abovementioned, most of the things are secondary

Ethereum isn't decentralized
Ethereum doesn't have limited supply
Transaction cost of litecoin isn't overly high
Cryptocurrency doesn't equal Bitcoin
Bitcoin is an example of cryptocurrency not the other way round
The difference you gave is for Bitcoin.
When I said change I didn't mean adding Bitcoin in bracket
But change every cryptocurrency to Bitcoin and remove or rewrite point 3.

Of course yes I know not all cyptrocurrency are decentralized if you could the thread again you'll see where I listed some cyptrocurrency for example Litecoin, Bitcoin and Euthereum  are decentralized digital currency.So the cyptrocurrency I mentioned in the example are the decentralized cyptrocurrency I was referring to as decentralized.

Hmmm nice, the beauty of cryptocurrencies just too epic mostly when comes to privacy 😜.

Yeah but if you misplaced that digital wallet seed phrase you also end up losing all your cryptocurrencies asset. Though I mostly prefer keeping most of my funds in cryptocurrencies (expecially bitcoin) than leaving it in fiat. Just got to still keep some back up funds with you due to some expected expenses or unexpected ones.

.as time goes on this won't longer be among the stuff that differs fiat from cryptocurrencies. Because cryptocurrencies are gradually evolving and more region are now involving in it. So a time would come when cryptocurrencies would finally accepted worldwide and bitcoin is helping in speeding that process.😁

I will like to imagine when you said cryptocurrency, you were talking about Bitcoin if not then
1. Not all cryptocurrency are decentralized
2. Some cryptocurrency operates only with the involvement of third party.
3.Not all cryptocurrency have limited supply e.g Ethereum.

You know what
Just change the cryptocurrency to Bitcoin
Because is like you giving the difference between Fiat currency and Bitcoin.

Fiat currency is a currency issued by the government while Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that uses the blockchain network-(A digitalized ledger that records transaction across the network of computers).In this thread I'll list the difference between fiat currency and bitcoin in a tabular form.

	Fiat Currency	Bitcoin
	1.Fiat currency is accepted worldwide as a legal tender.	1.Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that is not accepted in most countries as a legal tender.
	2.Controlled and managed by central bank.	2.Bitcoin operates without the involvement of third party like the central bank.
	3.Fiat currency has an unlimited supply.	3.Bitcoin has a limited supply.
	4.Fiat currency is a physical means of exchange for example coin,bank note etc.	4.Bitcoin is a digital means of exchange for example it uses the peer to peer-(P2P).
	5.Transaction cost of fiat currency is low.	5.Transaction cost of bitcoin is high.
	6.Fiat currency is stored in a person's bank account.	6.Bitcoin is stored in a person's digital wallet.
	7.Fiat currency can be destroyed physically for example it can be burnt.	7.Bitcoin can't be destroyed physically because it is stored in a digital wallet.