The first purchase using bitcoins was in 2009 when someone bought 2 pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins. Today, that would be worth $83,746,850. Many people have started to use Bitcoin and it is now the most popular cryptocurrency in the world. Many countries whose currencies have become hyperinflated have thought about switching their national currency to Bitcoin. For something to be classified as money, it needs to be a good unit of account, medium of exchange, and store of value. Since Bitcoin has become extremely popular, I wanted to explain to investors and Bitcoin users that Bitcoin isn't a legit currency. The main three reasons why Bitcoin isn't a legit currency is because it is a poor unit of account, medium of exchange, and store of value.
One of the big three parts of a currency is that it is a good unit of account. For something to be a unit of account, people have to be able to compare its price to the prices of alternative retail goods. Since the value of a bitcoin changes so much, it would be hard and confusing for both the consumer and the seller to recalculate the prices every day. “Because the value of a bitcoin compared to other currencies changes greatly on a day-to-day basis, retailers that accept the currency have to recalculate prices very frequently, a practice that would be costly to the merchant and confusing to the consumer.” This quote from David Yermack’s article Is Bitcoin a Real Currency? An Economic Appraisal Bitcoin shows why Bitcoin isn't a good unit of account. That is one reason why Bitcoin can't be a form of currency and why Bitcoin isn't a legit currency.
The second part of something that is classified as a currency is that it is a medium of exchange. A medium of exchange is an intermediary instrument used to facilitate the sale, purchase or trade of goods. Since bitcoin doesn't have any intrinsic value, so its worth is held up by its usefulness as a currency in the consumer economy. The Youtube video “Why Do Banks Fear Bitcoin” by VisionVictory explains that there is a set amount of Bitcoins and by the year 2140, there will be a total of 21 million bitcoins. Miners have already mined 11.9 million of them, and this means that there is only 9.1 million left. Once all of it is mined, there won’t be any more left to be mined. Dollar bills can be printed by the U.S. government if they were needed. Some more reasons why Bitcoins isn't a good medium of exchange are that Bitcoins transactions each take around 10 minutes each, which is very slow compared to using a credit or debit card, which takes a few seconds. Also, Bitcoin transactions can cost around $20, which is extremely expensive. Because of all of these reasons, Bitcoin can't be a good medium of exchange, which is very important if it were to be a legit currency.
The third and final part of a currency is that it has to be a good store of value. A store of value means that the function of an asset that can be saved, retrieved and exchanged at a later time. In the long podcast on Youtube by Paul Vigna & Michael Casey: ‘The Age of Cryptocurrency’, they explain what a decentralized currency is. Bitcoin is an atrocious store of value and one of the reasons why is because of its constant hacking attacks and other security problems. This is mostly because Bitcoin is decentralized, which means that there is no central authority that can stop any Bitcoin transaction or any hacking attempts. One of the reasons why Bitcoin is so popular is because people can stay anonymous and make transactions without people knowing who they are. The downside of using a decentralized currency is that people can do illegal things anonymously and get away with it. And also, Bitcoin’s exchange rate has no correlation at all with any other big currencies like the Dollar, Euro, and Yen. This makes Bitcoin extremely risky to use because it is tethered to any other currencies so its’ value would change constantly. This shows how terrible of a store of value Bitcoin is and why it cannot be a legit currency.
Tons of people are jumping on the “Bitcoin Bandwagon” without doing their own research on it, and they’re going to lose a lot of time and money because of this. They need to realize that Bitcoin is not a legit currency because it fails to be a unit of account, medium of exchange, and a store of value.
yeah thats so unfair but we know that bitcoin is only a cryptocurrency coin but maybe in the future btc will be a legit money in the world One of the big three parts of a currency is that it is a good unit of account. For something to be a unit of account, people have to be able to compare its price to the prices of alternative retail goods. Since the value of a bitcoin changes so much, it would be hard and confusing for both the consumer and the seller to recalculate the prices every day. “Because the value of a bitcoin compared to other currencies changes greatly on a day-to-day basis, retailers that accept the currency have to recalculate prices very frequently, a practice that would be costly to the merchant and confusing to the consumer.” This quote from David Yermack’s article Is Bitcoin a Real Currency? An Economic Appraisal Bitcoin shows why Bitcoin isn't a good unit of account. That is one reason why Bitcoin can't be a form of currency and why Bitcoin isn't a legit currency.
The second part of something that is classified as a currency is that it is a medium of exchange. A medium of exchange is an intermediary instrument used to facilitate the sale, purchase or trade of goods. Since bitcoin doesn't have any intrinsic value, so its worth is held up by its usefulness as a currency in the consumer economy. The Youtube video “Why Do Banks Fear Bitcoin” by VisionVictory explains that there is a set amount of Bitcoins and by the year 2140, there will be a total of 21 million bitcoins. Miners have already mined 11.9 million of them, and this means that there is only 9.1 million left. Once all of it is mined, there won’t be any more left to be mined. Dollar bills can be printed by the U.S. government if they were needed. Some more reasons why Bitcoins isn't a good medium of exchange are that Bitcoins transactions each take around 10 minutes each, which is very slow compared to using a credit or debit card, which takes a few seconds. Also, Bitcoin transactions can cost around $20, which is extremely expensive. Because of all of these reasons, Bitcoin can't be a good medium of exchange, which is very important if it were to be a legit currency.
The third and final part of a currency is that it has to be a good store of value. A store of value means that the function of an asset that can be saved, retrieved and exchanged at a later time. In the long podcast on Youtube by Paul Vigna & Michael Casey: ‘The Age of Cryptocurrency’, they explain what a decentralized currency is. Bitcoin is an atrocious store of value and one of the reasons why is because of its constant hacking attacks and other security problems. This is mostly because Bitcoin is decentralized, which means that there is no central authority that can stop any Bitcoin transaction or any hacking attempts. One of the reasons why Bitcoin is so popular is because people can stay anonymous and make transactions without people knowing who they are. The downside of using a decentralized currency is that people can do illegal things anonymously and get away with it. And also, Bitcoin’s exchange rate has no correlation at all with any other big currencies like the Dollar, Euro, and Yen. This makes Bitcoin extremely risky to use because it is tethered to any other currencies so its’ value would change constantly. This shows how terrible of a store of value Bitcoin is and why it cannot be a legit currency.
Tons of people are jumping on the “Bitcoin Bandwagon” without doing their own research on it, and they’re going to lose a lot of time and money because of this. They need to realize that Bitcoin is not a legit currency because it fails to be a unit of account, medium of exchange, and a store of value.
