Topic: Will bitcoin ever succeed as a currency (Read 984 times)

Fiat and Cryptocurrency have their own essence of existence. We cannot really easily say that cryptocurrency can replace fiat, we still need to do traditional transaction since the knowledge of cryptocurrency is not that famous and do not recognize by all countries, there are still countries that didn't recognize as a good way of payment method, and also an invesment. There are still disadvantages in cryptocurrency such as high fees when the price is at the peak, also it is irreversible when you sent it on the other wallet (mistake of sending it into another wallet).

As a currency I can't say but as a valuable asset (digital gold) then the answer is YES, to be honest bitcoin is digital gold alike, in fact it beats physical gold in value right now so there you have your answer, there are other cryptocurrencies that fits payment solution better than bitcoin

Cryptocurrencies cannot replace the fiat / classic system. Let me explain now. Cryptocurrency, and specifically bitcoin, has one feature - the irreversibility of the operation. This, in my opinion, is a key property that does not allow using cryptocurrency instead of fiat funds. Let me explain - because of this property, the stolen funds cannot be returned to the rightful owner, in the absence of a password from the wallet, the funds of the deceased cannot be returned to the family, a forgotten password is equal to irreversibly lost funds, an erroneously sent transaction cannot be canceled. And there are many more situations that blockchain technology has, but fiat money does not have.

Some experts are still skeptical about Bitcoin, but that there are things that can confirm Bitcoin is going to be the primary currency in the future. Large companies have their own interest in crypto. More people realize banking systems are pretty rigid, and they will be asked to provide a lot of your data when you try to make a transaction. Last but not least, the financial crisis is coming. Some experts predict that it will be much harder than the previous one. Bitcoin is considered as a safe heaven.

It's not about how popular bitcoin is but it's about how much people already used bitcoin as currency. It says that it's not all of people are using bitcoin to be the currency due to the scalability problem.
Bitcoin is very popular among the users as the store of value. I thnk that you must try to read again to understand the context dude.

You are missing the point.

For me, Bitcoin overcome so many problems already but still kicking out fiat when it comes to price and technology. Bitcoin is already succeeded in so many ways, and I think being stabilize is not enough reason to call a currency a successful one. Bitcoin has a lot of advantages versus fiat, that's why as you can see, a lot of big companies and names has already made their move which is to invest in Bitcoin. Now, they are included in the Bitcoin Enthusiast community that will further help the massive adaptation of Bitcoin.

The fact that Bitcoin could be use in daily transactions, it is already a gigantic proof that it is beyong successsful.

We can say more that the absolute majority of citizens do not much like experiments in this area, because it is associated with personal finances and prefer proven, as well as actively imposed by the state and society tools. A person may even catch a glimpse of other methods many times, but this does not necessarily push him to a new one. And if even before that there was a bad experience with the past fall of cryptocurrencies, then even more so a person will stay as far away as possible.

They are used to the convenience of the technology they are using. For example, people nowadays are starting to maximize the things they can do with their mobile wallet and with the pandemic still happening, these wallets and way of the transaction is safe. What I am saying is that bitcoin is not the only thing they are using right now, most of the people are not even using it and don't know it yet.

Whats the need of bitcoin be recognised as a currency. As of now bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market is getting known by more number of people than the past. In simple terms people have known it an investment than a currency. As it hasn't got a paper or physical form people find it hard to give consideration to it as currency. It has been slowly getting more used on payments, and the same might make the future generation to prioritise it a currency as the upcoming generation will be completely functional on technology.

This is a gross exaggeration.  The bill included a tremendous amount of small business support in addition to the individual support.  What's problematic is the abuse of the small business support by businesses that didn't need assistance or took it while not being qualified. There need to be steep penalties for those businesses and their owners who did so. But republicans keep blocking all attempts at accountability.

It's just that people who are captivated by the magic of words about digital currencies do not fully understand the difference between real currencies such as fiat currencies and bitcoin. Modern fiat currencies serve more as a means of payment than as a speculative or investment asset. This is exactly the niche that bitcoin is trying to occupy in modern times, and it is strange to demand price stability from this cryptocurrency in this role.

Bitcoin is a digital currency. It's a cryptocurrency. It's one of the versatile cryptocurrency. It's a system by which people can send money via internet. Actually it's a file which can be stored in a computer. There are many advantages of bitcoin. Like: bitcoin is a very easy transaction system, it's accepted by most of the people, it's beneficial than other cryptocurrencies, people can earn bitcoin by mining, people are using bitcoin all over the world,it's a faster and easier transaction system.
Despite having a lot of benefits bitcoin is not still succeed as a currency. As it's a digital currency poor and underdeveloped countries can't use it. There are some security issues of bitcoin transaction system. Government or financial authority can't control bitcoin as a result most of the governments don't like bitcoin as a currency. It uses a lot of electricity. As a result it's very costly for a country. The software and machine which is used in bitcoin system is very costly too. There are a lot of complaints against bitcoin.
So, it can be said that bitcoin can't be succeed as governments don't like bitcoin as a currency. But, in future if governments change their mindset then things will be better.

And for stable prices there are fiat currencies and even stable coins now available in crypto market. the whole concept of Bitcoins was based on demand and supply where the demand was always going to rise while the supply was limited and took efforts to mine them. Any early investors knew this and they saw the potential which is the reason behind the unexplained growth of Bitcoins from a cent to now 40k.

People who complain about volatile price baffle me because there are so many payment methods if you want to just have stable prices and for a change we needed something different which finally Bitcoins has achieved, with time the supply will become even lesser and price even higher.

You said really well that btc has already shows us that it has been success .Btc is now the best and popular coin over the world and it surely worth to all .We have seen the strong price of it recently if its not been succeed how could it go so .So it is clear to us all that it is worth to the modern world .

Yeah, being used for remittances is another use-case for bitcoin where it's better than the traditional alternatives.  Sending wires across borders remains relatively slow and expensive compared to bitcoin.  But as an everyday currency, bitcoin is still woeful in just about every regard.

Bitcoin has been getting used as an alternate currency to the traditional mainstream currency for some needs. This will slowly get widened, because people are getting more awareness about bitcoin and has started using it for different needs. Right now very few countries have legalized the usage, and for that reason bitcoin is being considered more as an investment than a currency. The scenario will change with time when people get adopted to technology.

I think bitcoin has become a currency that can be used to buy goods and services in certain regions, but to be a currency that can replace fiat currency in my opinion it is not possible.
Bitcoin is suitable for investment and online payments.

as far as i can see and i know bitcoin has been very successful as a currency. many people buy, sell, use it, it is proof that bitcoin has become a successful currency. And I think people are interested to digital currency because of bitcoin, which is easier to use for investing and making a profit. people will be interested by the benefits that are easy to get, and bitcoin is the answer, if you are smart to play it.

I think BTC is a successful currency yet. But in this platform nothing is stable. This is highly volatile by its character. BTC started its journey in a full negative time. But it struggled very hard to change the situation. Now people accepting BTC very fast and increase the use of online currency. Maybe in the future BTC will take a place that no other currency ever gain before.

delays are fine if they are buying btc for investing . more companies investing in btc is great but that only proves that btc is great for investment and not as a currency .

 id be more happy if those companies also use btc on their service, for paying as a currency and not just for investment but then again there is a flaw that holds them back for doing this . we can only hope for a change in the btc code but hoping that it doesnt break the thing that we love the most

I wouldn't consider it a currency either, even if there is a mass adoption it is not like everything will just change in a flash, there will still be users of fiat money and some governments will be banning cryptocurrency. As @bryant.coleman mentioned in the quote above, the transaction will be difficult and in this world where time is a precious item, I think that it will flop real hard if they forcibly enforce adoption.

With an increasing number of institutions investing in Bitcoin, the hype surrounding cryptocurrency is going to increase and more and more people will start using Bitcoin. As a result, the number of transactions will increase. But here the problem is that, with limited block size, users can expect lengthy delays. And that makes Bitcoin unsuitable for usage as a currency.

As a currency that would be used regularly or as a payment I think it would be hard to achieve it,
Because of it's volatility people see it as an opportunity to gain profit so instead of using it as a currency they would use it like an investment tool,
Just look at the guy who bought pizza with Bitcoin it is still being talk even if the event has happened so long ago,
People keeps on using it as a way to make people think that it is better to use it as investment tool rather than being a currency.

Bitcoin journey to gotten to be a cash, it ought to gotten to be an alternative to begin with. The starting stage of person to person cash for bitcoin was purely intentional driven by wants and standards of a specialty gather of individuals. What is driving the current development and acknowledgment is something that everybody is likely still figuring out. According SoV use case has captured the creative energy for most individuals, particularly due to the instability of these times. Now that it has esteem, it is slowly becoming an choice versus money.

Bitcoin has already succeeds as a currency if you ask me, what happens is that people are very slow to adapt to the new technology, they do not see a need for bitcoin and that is why they ignore it but now that institutional investors are coming the price should be more stable than what it was in the past, this will eventually begin to bring more people and as the fiat currencies begin to show their weaknesses more people will come to this market seeking for a safe haven and that is when this market will really take off.

I believe that today the main task is not only to rise in price, but also to stabilize the value of bitcoin, since only in this case can Bitcoin be considered a reliable storage, such as gold. One way or another, the superiority of Bitcoin lies in the fact that no one can control it, which means that each user is his own master. Of course, you can't do without problems, such as scalability, but this issue is in the process of being solved.

Bitcoin will continue to operate as a peer to peer digital currency to all users in the world. The founder of bitcoin which is Satoshi Nakamoto created bitcoin for the purpose of storing money and easy payment without third party involve in any transaction.

Bitcoin is already succeeding as a digital currency in the world since 2008,when it was published on whitepaper for the world to use it to reduce stress from our traditional transaction.

Those are technical stuff and not ideological stuff and that is where the problem lies. We are now using fiat money, if we are using cash we just give some paper and get some coins back, and that's it which is very fast, if we are using debit/credit card we are just swiping something and we are done, it is very fast. However that is still fiat money and that's still unfair. You want to look at unfairness at fiat world?

Recently USA passed a stimulus bill, the bill was for a total of 900 billion dollars, they gave everyone 600 dollars, there is 328 million, who will get it, 328 million times 600 makes 196 billion dollars.

Do you know where the other 704 billion dollars went? It went to already rich people so they can keep being richer than everyone else. Fiat money will keep producing more slaves, whereas crypto is here to free you, so it is not about waiting times or fee's, if you wait 75 minutes instead of doing it instantly, you are getting your freedom.

But as the price changes, doesn't it become better? The more people use it might've make it more volatile but that also means that the amount of bitcoin they will be using is not that much. Fees might be a problem but there are mobile wallets that could accept and send transactions almost instantaneously without fees. If that would be used by stores or merchants, that would be really great.

It's one of the best digital currency one can hedge against inflation and I think it satisfy some aspect of money but ability to scale it's network has been a major problem. We have see different new projects with a layer 2.0 protocol but it's not as trusted as bitcoin it's self that's why many whales and investors don't go to them.
Bitcoin cant be use as a currency and the reasons are obvious such transactions fee though lightening network is good for micro business but not decentralized as people think.

Not really. It has never fulfilled the most important aspect of a useable currency and that’s price stability. An inability to hold a consistent value makes bitcoin a poor currency. Store of value and speculative assets aren’t the same thing as a currency and that’s primarily how we see bitcoin being used.

I guess the idea of "currency" asked here is not that "could it be considered as a currency" because it is a currency, we all know that, it is even named crypto currency so we all know that much. However it is more about "will you be able to buy your groceries with it?" because let's face it crypto is not used in the regular life.

If you were to decide that you are going to pay everything in bitcoin, your life would be very limited, for starters I can't even pay for my bills in bitcoin, I have to pay for my electricity, gas, water, mobile line and all those things and none of those companies accept bitcoin and that is just the first of the month, the market I go to doesn't take bitcoin so I can't get regular life stuff there like apples, veggies, meat or whatever because they do not accept it, so basically could crypto ever reach to those levels to be able to pay everything in crypto? I am not sure, maybe one day in the future but not right now.

Before the weakness of Bitcoin there was no solution, don't expect Bitcoin to succeed as a currency. And another thing that makes it difficult for
Bitcoin to become a currency is permission from the government. Because as we know, many countries accept Bitcoin, but only as a digital asset.
So Bitcoin has not been accepted as payment in some countries that already accept Bitcoin, this happens because many governments are worried
that their national currency will be replaced by Bitcoin. So the conclusion is that if you look at the obstacles faced by Bitcoin to become a currency,
there are still many, like Bitcoin may not be successful in currency.

A couple of years ago, when I bought my first Bitcoin, I used to believe that Bitcoin would become the world currency like the US dollar right now. But trying to be more realistic I understood that because of numerous disadvantages Bitcoin couldn't succeed as the currency. Well, it's great as a store of wealth (especially in long terms), but its volatility, high transaction fees and so on are here to stay.

Bitcoin has not been able to be a currency due to the high cost problem, and its value is so volatile that some countries are still too hesitant to use Bitcoin as a currency, to be able to become a country's currency, of course it must be supported by the government's trust in Bitcoin.

The cost issue may be the reason why bitcoin is still reluctant to be adopted as a currency by various companies. This scalability is still one of the things that developers keep thinking about so that bitcoin is really used efficiently as a currency. If this problem can be handled properly, then there is a possibility that large companies in countries that legalize the use of bitcoin as a mean of payment will be interested in adopting this system.

But I firmly believe it will take some time and require support from the community. As an asset that has value, bitcoin has become the asset of choice for traders, investors, whales to reap the profit of trading and investment.

It's clear that irrespective the year so companies adopt payment of workers with bitcoin if really such wants to inherit such method of payment, it will, because everything is all about decision and determination, because base on massive adoption of cryptocurrency especially bitcoin many people in society is even willing to receive payment with cryptocurrency, which is the objective of everyone towards bitcoin, and as I said before now is just the beginning of mass companies adoption of bitcoin, soon their objectives will come in reality.

The demand as a speculative market is really high as we are already seeing companies converting their assets to bitcoin and some institutional investors having huge bitcoin portfolios and most of the exchange should cut down the transaction fees they levy if they are looking for new investors considering the price has rallied to exceptionally high levels but for bitcoin to succeed as a currency there is a very long way to go.

It already succeeded as a currency a long time ago that can be used for transactions, many stores accept it and being used on different platforms. No matter what you call it, bitcoin is a currency, and the fact that many people are buying and using it, it's a success already. We can't even believe that this currency will be known by many people, the community growth and the development of other currency are now getting started because of bitcoin. It doesn't even matter if some people are just buying and selling, should I say an investment tool only because as long as people use it, not being a dead coin, then it's enough to be called as a successful currency.

I do not see how AR could make things a lot better for bitcoin? I do not know where you could use it. The technology of AR is great because in a future world we could literally have people wearing VR goggles, have AR tech to make it like we are anywhere we want, see ourselves anywhere, with the imaginary things seen there as well, hell this could be the best way to meet your friends, you can be sitting at home with AR and they will be sitting at home on their chairs, and we all would see each other on our own homes, everyone will be each other's homes.

AR could be great, VR could be even better, these things will make the future so much better. But at that point I stop, I agree that they are great and have great future, but how about bitcoin? Where does bitcoin come into play there? I do not see how it would be used in new technology, why not just use regular fiat but digitally?

BTC is already a speculative tool - just like any other at least slightly popular cryptocurrency. Buy " smth" cheaper and sell a little more expensive - this is called speculation. Only in the case of cryptocurrencies, this is the highest level because here demand and supply are not born out of material meaning, but only because there is a demand for easy money and cryptocurrencies give an offer for this easy money (and good ideas for some people who believe in bright money feature).
You can even say that cryptocurrencies are now not far away from derivatives on derivatives and other bets on top of other bets.

This is just the biggest problem of the entire crypto community - they are happy when BTC grows and think that it attracts more and more new users, and this is partly true. But it will be more true that the more expensive BTC is, the more people are starting to talk again that this is just a huge money bubble.
And as we know from history every rise in the price is followed by a deafening fall that destroys both the belief in cryptocurrencies as something that will bring profit and the fact that it is not a money bubble.
The desire to make money on cryptocurrency is like the desire to sleep with your sexy stepmother - she is not your own blood, but still it is very low and vulgar.

If we check this article https://99bitcoins.com/bitcoin/who-accepts/ its obvious that Major companies and stores who accept bitcoins as a payment option base on last year report, so for sure we can really see more adoption coming as bitcoin now is so trending due to the current bull run happening. We don't know on when this gonna happen but its good to see a great step happening and we can expect that the future is bright for bitcoin.

Bitcoin is now more of a "digital" gold than a currency, people buying it just to keep it and afraid to use it for transaction because the fee is kinda high I guess? the fee might looks cheaper than it was around 2017-2018 but the expensive price of bitcoin really drives up the fee cost in duller like by hundreds percent compared it was in the past making it kinda unsuitable for "real" currency thats used for transaction or daily activities. Bitcoin need to sort it out before becoming a real currency thats used for daily life.

Bitcoin is already a currency, a currency that everyworld is using for exchanges of goods and services, so asking a question that if bitcoin will succeed as a currency is very astonished because looking at the world currently, all most half of the world has adopted the use of cryptocurrency especially bitcoin to their countries so provided that bitcoin has been legalized there it's obvious that bitcoin is existing as a currency irrespective that theirs fiat currency that is already in existence and which we know that cryptocurrency can't eliminate existing currency of a country, but its obvious worldwide that bitcoin is a currency which is generally accepted for a vital exchanges.

America's financial authority have supported the usage of stablecoins on banking transaction needs. This is a big step in the financial sector. The same might get followed in more countries in the following years. If that happens automatically bitcoin gets recognition as a currency. Even now with its value and usage, it is valued to be seventh largest currency in terms of volume.

Eventually, when Bitcoin becomes less volatile or almost become stable. There were still a lot of fiat alternatives that you can use to transact today, and Bitcoin's high volatility and high fees makes it hard to transact.
We all know Bitcoin already succeeded as a currency because we could actually use it to buy or pay for service, but the volume of usage of Bitcoin as currency is still very low, that again because of it's high volatility, and people considered Bitcoin as a store of value rather than a currency.

This has been the questions of every crypto users right from the beginning. Although, bitcoin is being accepted by some merchants as a means of payment, it cannot be generally considered a currency.
The price of bitcoin is currently very volatile and as such is very difficult for the evaluation of goods and services. I, however, believe when gets adopted to an extent and is valued at certain price, it will become stable and then can be used. No matter what the price is then, the equivalence of goods and services will be found using the unit of bitcoin, Satoshi

I have the same question, isn't Bitcoin a currency already!? We can use it, we can buy/pay with Bitcoin, we can invest it or gamble with Bitcoin...when you think about it you can do with Bitcoin everything you can do with any fiat currency!
We can't use Bitcoin everywhere! Well guess what? You can't use dollars everywhere either! Every country has their own fiat, you need to know which fiat you can use in a specific place...it's the same with Bitcoin. And let's  try some other fiat, for example my currency, Dinar (RSD)! If I end up in some far away country, I think it would be better for me to have some Bitcoins than Dinars! I would exchange Bitcoins easier, I am sure in that!
Bitcoin price is volatile! It is, and that's a good thing! It's one of the reasons why we believe in a very high price of Bitcoin in the future! The road to there is no straight line, it's full of ups and downs, we know that, and we are using those changes to make profit whenever we can, and however we know!

As of the moment, AR is getting a ton of attention but few innovations to make it optimal for everyday use, but once it gets available to every household, more than just for entertainment purposes, this is where bitcoin may thrive the most. People may altogether use it which will significantly lower the price, but will make it viable as a currency. Yep. Fixing and optimisation in order to make it a viable currency. That being said, there are still a long way to go for bitcoin to reach these heights, and only time will tell if it's achievable or not.

I am sure that in the future Bitcoin will be successful as a currency, but now there are still many shortcomings that Bitcoin has as a currency.
So there needs to be a fix regarding the shortage of Bitcoin, but of course it takes a long process and we do have to be patient through the process
for Bitcoin to be successful as a currency. If we look at the increasing every year the number of merchants who accept Bitcoin payments, this proves
to be progress in the good direction that Bitcoin has begun to be accepted as a currency. Once again I say we must be patient.

I still believe that taxing bitcoin is a smarter decision than banning it. If you ban bitcoin in your nation as a government you are fighting something that you can't stop, both your citizens will continue to buy and sell off the market so you will not be part of it, and you will lose a lot of taxes from those trades, and you will also lose money from the exchanges profit at the same time as well.

But if you as a government decide to not only let it go, but also support it, and tax it reasonably, you are going to have a lot of exchanges and you are going to have both the taxes you will get from people who traded and made money from it, and you are going to get taxes from the profits of exchanges no matter what as well. It is just smarter decision to let it be, that way you are going to do a lot better compared to all other nations and you will have tax income as well.

I do not think so because of its high volatility. A stable coin is much suitable to use as a currency. But BTC can be used as a reserve fund for storing value like gold. Satoshis vision was to create a currency that can be an alternative to paper cash but BTC became a place for investments like real estate and valuable commodity.

Is it not already a currency? As far as many users are concerned, its already a great currency within the Internet and it is also used to be converted into cash in a number of ways. If you are pertaining to Bitcoin as being used within the real world, its already being adopted in some way but not yet fully adopted since there will be a lot of conflict with Governments when they learn about some currency from the Internet is taking over their banks. It could succeed as a currency but that would go through a lot of trials and at least one country needs to step up and show other countries that Bitcoin can have the legitimacy of any other currencies.

I think it will. Because its the future of currency. And I think it will be the common currency in the world . Gradually every country will accept bitcoin and it will be the common currency between  many countries to facilitate  the trading system.

I really do not understand how can you say that you consider using bitcoin as a form of barter, if you are using an asset as a medium of exchange and that medium of exchange is not only used by you but by millions of people and that asset has all the characteristics of money then it is money, it is true that bitcoin is nowhere near to become as successful as the US dollar and maybe it will never happen but to say it is not a currency is a mistake to me.

It appears to me that you simply are trying to find a flawlessly steady cryptocurrency which does not exist, indeed the dollar isn't totally steady and it moves when compared to other monetary standards and the worst portion of all it moves contrarily against all commodities and administrations, at slightest the instability that bitcoin tests could be a net positive for the market and since most of that instability is made by approaching cash once the advertise is develop sufficient and the approaching cash may be a modest division of the cash as of now display at that point we might start to see bitcoin prospering as a cash.

Bitcoin can possibly a currency in a digital platform where people will adopt it and make it as a payment method in some transactions.

It is never impossible for bitcoin to become utilized in many ways because digital transactions are becoming more popular in our era and in our generation.

Also other platforms already adopted bitcoin last year 2020, like Paypal and I found it a positive movement for bitcoin to other businesses or companies to also adopt bitcoin in the upcoming years.

If you need a stable currency,then just use stablecoins like USDT,or fiat money.You obviously have a choice.
Whining about Bitcoin being volatile is pointless.People have been whining about this subject since 2013.
I don't know how the Bitcoin market will "mature"?Can you explain this to me?Markets are driven by fear and greed.The cryptocurrency market isn't different.If Bitcoin becomes a stable currency,all the greedy risk loving crypto traders will just leave the market.This will create lower market liquidity and a lower BTC price.Do we want this to happen?

My stakes are on bitcoin really but with little overconfidence I guess. The reason for overconfidence is due to one major fact, bitcoin cost is very huge and the fractions are getting impossible to buy. The smallest bits won't be possible after few years when BTC will cost you more than 50K USD which is gonna be talks of future.

Imagine buying a cup of coffee and you can't buy it because you can't pay that less amount (bits = mega price fraction). Then it will be impossible to say bitcoin as currency or will turn into currency.

But I believe it would be because its popular and publicly recognised now. Easily getting accepted by everyone which means easy access, high demand giving high prices too in terms of investment.

It's still a baby. Don't rush it.
I am sure it is the world that is not yet prepared for a change.
Then, there is volatility. For now. That will stop but maybe not in our lifetime but for our kids.

I hope I am still alive looking at that moment where Bitcoin is being used as a normal currency. (widely) But, I know it will be.

Because of its characteristics, the chances are in favor of success being decentralized, immutable, resistant to censorship, limited, borderless, neutral, independent from central banks and governments, etc. Since its inception, Bitcoin has been up 99.99% of the time and has worked and is the world's most secure network. This is why I believe bitcoin is going to succeed.

I'm disappointed in hearing a bitcoiner (community member) boldly saying bitcoin isn't real. Bitcoin is more of a currency than the fiat can even be. For starters bitcoin isn't just printed from thin even when ever the economy (price) is down to boost it unlike the fiats that the government body abuse for their selfish interest claiming it's for the good of the masses.

Bitcoin has a finite supply and been purely backed also very transparent unlike the fiat system that doesn't have any of this. Now between a currency that it's mode of operation is visible and can be verified by all with the required knowledge than a system where only the banker make the important discussion, which is qualifed to be called real money?

Bitcoin is very young, the fiat currency are centuries old, therefore you don't expect bitcoin to just come into the spotlight and start dominating every aspect of the economy, it's a gradual process that'll take time to happen.

No, Bitcoin is Bitcoin, cannot be used as a currency in general, Bitcoin is not a dollar, GBP, JPY and so on.

Bitcoin digital currency, which is currently traded all over the world, if you dream that Bitcoin will become one of the stable currencies and transactions like the dollar, your dream will disappear, never achieved.

Actually the reason Bitcoin cannot be used as a currency like the country's currency is very simple: "Bitcoin is not real, it cannot be held and printed" whereas money like dollars can be printed every year, Bitcoin has no real place, money like dollars has a real place.
Bitcoin is like a dream for you, but it sure is.

Unfortunately people swayed away from the real purpose of bitcoin because of how much it values and that created something both great and horrible at the same time. Bitcoin being around 30k means that there are more and more people interested in bitcoin, and that is something we would want right? I would want everyone in the entire world to be interested in bitcoin, I would want everyone to own some, even if only few satoshi, because I want it to be adopted everywhere.

However I also realize that just because bitcoin worths a lot, that also made people get in and be interested because they want to get rich, not because they care about bitcoin, people would literally let the whole bitcoin be destroyed if they would get rich from it. So right now we are in a bad situation out of something good, I don't know how it could ever be saved from this position neither.

Probably not because bitcoin is now a valuable asset that is over gold right now, people tend to treat bitcoin as gold than payment currency, I don't blame them though, too much of bad economics is different part of the world and bitcoin have safe the live of many including mine, I would rather hold for more ROI than to use as means of payment, there are other altcoins that are more suited for means of payment than bitcoin

nothing is stable unless it is the denominator.

Once everything is denominated in BTC, then everything else looks unstable.

This myth of stability had to go.

Bitcoin now at 35,000 USD is already a great success. In my opinion the governments will eventually realise that fighting crypto currencies is no solution. Long term all countries need to arrange themself with it's people having access to bitcoins and alt coins. Governments shoulldn't be afraid anymore.

Wow, I never expected so many replies. I really appreciate everyone providing such thoughtful comments and staying on topic. Great to see this forum is still so active; reminds me of the early bitcoin days. I think I'll be posting more often here. I'll try to address some of the replies in this post:

@Casdinyard
> The question is "How do you define a currency's success?"

Something is successful as a currency if those who are selling goods and services prefer to accept it and hold it until they can also use it as payment. If many potential customers are holding it, a merchant will accept it. But the merchant will only hold it if the price is stable. Otherwise the merchant would risk not being able to pay suppliers. So when merchants accept bitcoin they immediately convert it to fiat. So by this definition my original post is asking when and if ever we will reach a point where merchants will not only accept bitcoin, but hold it knowing they can use it to pay their expenses and suppliers.

@Silberman
> Most of that volatility is created by incoming money. Once the market is mature enough and the incoming money is a tiny fraction of the money already present then we could begin to see bitcoin flourishing as  a currency.

Very well said. However, bitcoin is still an experiment and we have yet to see how people will perceive it when the incoming money dries up. Will price stabilize or will it implode. I don't think it will ever implode to zero since it has a production cost. It may stabilize, but still go up or down in value based on the population size holding bitcoin. If there are twice as many people as before, each can have 1/2 as much bitcoin as before and the cost of a hair cut would have to be 1/2 as much. But this would be a very gradual change when the population size holding bitcoin is everyone in the world.

@Mauser
> The demand for bitcoins is growing every year and we are seeing a higher number of institutional investors from around the world to switch into the crypto world. With all these new players the pressure on FIAT currencies will rise too.

That's actually a bit scary. Bitcoin may trigger the collapse of fiat currencies (as everyone rushes to convert fiat to bitcoin), while it has not yet matured to the point of being stable. So we could have a period of time when people are not sure what to use as yardstick for value.

It really depends on what you count as "succeed". I don't think governments will ever allow it to replace fiat. But in my book, even if a few percent of the population will use it on a daily basis for their personal transactions or business, that will be a success. We're actually extremely far even from that point. High volatility makes people view it only as investment. Its main selling point - control over your money, is actually not that interesting to most people, because most people don't see problems with banks.

It’s very hard to imagine a scenario where bitcoin is ever a functioning currency. It has never fulfilled the most important aspect of a useable currency and that’s price stability. An inability to hold a consistent value makes bitcoin a poor currency. It’s a speculative asset.

No. I don't think that some governments are afraid of bitcoin, even it lacks a central authority, and will be difficult for them to confiscate them because bitcoin has a lot of benefits as a digital currency. Also, if governments do find bitcoin as a threat most countries should already ban their citizens from owning it a long time ago, and big companies have not adapted bitcoin to increase its price today.

governments are afraid of bitcoin, ae they gonna let btc succeed as a currency ? They are the biggest threat to bitcoin

OMG! 
First time I stumbled upon an account that was registered in 2011, if you have been active or reader, you should be really familiar with Satoshi and early life of bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Newbie with an avatar 

Back to your topic @OP, it's still early to say anything about the success of bitcoin as currency, there were so many uncalculated events that happen in the past that made bitcoin to make lows of price, but institutional are playing there card right now, we can't say how long this will continue and correction.

Bitcoin could be considered an asset but it was created as a currency, not as an asset, it was us humans who decided to use it like an asset which created all this crypto world, everyone around here is trying to make more money, some people do end up losing money while others get richer but the whole public here trying to make some profit and that's it nothing more.

In reality when it was first created the idea was to have something better than fiat currency, the idea that "fiat is not tied to anything, its worthless paper that others give value to" became a thing for bitcoin as well, bitcoin doesn't have any type of instinct value neither but people have invested into it and made it ballooned to high levels. I am not really complaining because this allowed us to have a bit more money but I would like to also see bitcoin as a currency as well and not just an asset.

Bitcoin is not a currency and should be used to the daily shopping at supermarkets. Bitcoin is an asset just like gold but in a different way. Just because you can buy/sell stuff using bitcoin you should not call it currency, I see some people buying house or car using golds, so gold is a currency? It's not. It's an asset just like bitcoin. But you can trade your asset for goods freely. Because there are many websites or shops looking to earn some bitcoin by selling goods. In the the first place it was not created to be a normal currency, but none knows about the future.

Bitcoin as a currency is getting used around the globe. Here, it hasn't got the recognition as a currency. Very few Country around the globe have legalized it, whereas majority have added it to the exchangeable asset and can't be used on payment needs. This scenario need to change. For a change to happen is not a simple thing, it takes years and years.

Bitcoin is very young, but it has reached and crossed several milestones with its multiple usage access. Slowly we can see more and more countries legalizing the usage of bitcoin. By that time bitcoin might succeed as a currency.

Markets are pretty efficient. They price in speculative probabilities, like Bitcoin's future utility and adoption as a mainstream payment rail. If that's a real possibility, of course people are going to buy them up, knowing the limited supply is going to force the price exponentially higher in any mass adoption scenario. That's just a market being a market. You think everyone is going to wait until Bitcoin is perfect and ready to place their bets? Of course not.

I don't think that means Bitcoin is limited to being a speculative vehicle. It just means speculation comes first, results come second.

I do not think that it is about stability, but rather volatile growth, and it is better to measure that to compare it with gold or silver instead of paper money.
When the market capacity increases, we will find that the currency is more stable and that the currency will begin to increase in a small way, which makes the use of the daily currencies well for many countries.

Generally, bitcoin will be the internet currency and will not be used for all countries or currencies for daily use and for purchasing products.

The problem is not even that BTC will not always become more expensive and will not always become more and more popular, but that everyone who uses it sees it exclusively as an intermediary between themselves and the dollar, arguing that it is "secure" and "anonymity".
Believe me, in the 21st century, it still possible to be anonymous and to do shady things if you use clean and official tools, mixing somewhere in the depths of some rare and totally impersonal transactions (big crimes in the world still do with fiat) or for real privacy they can use ZEC/XMR .
Until cryptocurrencies begin to act as money by themselves, in isolation from the dollar/euro/etc-they will remain as just another investment instrument of currency for geeks

I do think that Bitcoins will eventually succeed as an ordinary currency that is a serious alternative to FIAT currencies.

The demand for bitcoins is growing every year and we are seeing a higher number of institutional investors from around the world to switch into the crypto world. With all these new players the pressure on FIAT currencies will rise too.

In my opinion we will see more and more transaction being done with bitcoins.

I agree with your opinion. Bitcoin has really become very famous now. However, only a small percentage of people own it in their wallets. However, even among those who bought bitcoin, very few use it as a means of payment. The infrastructure for this has not yet been developed, and besides, why use it to purchase goods or services, if in general it is constantly growing in price and making a profit.
However, indeed, it will not constantly increase in price. There will come a time when it will stop growing and it will be pointless to just keep it in the hope of profit. After that, the attitude towards bitcoin will change.

I think this is actually your question, the issue of stability, and not if Bitcoin is a currency, which we already know it is cause it's already used in the same way different currencies are used all over the world, processing buying and selling/payment for services. Imo, It'll take quite a long time for Bitcoin to attain stability, if it ever will; but I don't think it's going to be as stable as Fiat that you use daily, and I don't even want it to be, Bitcoin is an anti-inflationary currency and it's somewhat easy to evaluate its 'volatile' value either when it's appreciating in price or losing value, and in hindsight it's a plus and not a con to the network.

Having said that, $100 I know is $100, but the value never remains the same, inflation reduces/ devalues it's purchasing power without changing the paper note, but the truth is $100 today in a few years time could actually be half it's value in terms of what it can purchase, that's not stability for me, it's actually a misconception if you ask me, Bitcoin may not be stable, but you actually know it's worth at everytime cause 1Btc is 1Btc.

The question is "How do you define a currency's success?"
'coz if being used and recognized as a currency is the basis, Bitcoin will have a chance to be in such state. But if it is Bitcoin being the only currency, I guess it won' t be possible. It's nature of decentralisation would be a factor because governments will more support centralised currencies due to regulations and taxation purposes, that's just how things work. Third party network would somehow aid this concern but economies work more than that. Bitcoin and other cryptos are indeed beneficial to its users but being the only one in the limelight is another thing in which even fiat based currencies did not even manage to do so, and I guess things will be the same in this industry.

But is it capable of mass adoption like everyone circlejerks about? Considering the limited supply I do not think so. I think the people buying and selling stuff using bitcoin and other cryptocurrency falls more on barter or trading. I have to agree that it succeeded but not as a currency, I would say it succeeded on removing the middleman (sort of) in transactions online.

Bitcoin succeeded as a currency 11 years ago, when one guy bought two pizzas and paid with Bitcoin. Will Bitcoin succeed as the world currency like USD? I don't think so. Bitcoin isn't the perfect medium of exchange because of several reasons.

It seems to me that you are looking for a perfectly stable cryptocurrency and that does not exist, even the dollar is not completely stable and it moves when compared to other currencies and the worst part of all it moves negatively against all commodities and services, at least the volatility that bitcoin experiments is a net positive for the market and since most of that volatility is created by incoming money once the market is mature enough and the incoming money is a tiny fraction of the money already present then we could begin to see bitcoin flourishing as  a currency.

Sorry, if you are interested in a currency that would be "very stable" and be used to price other goods, then you shouldn't be using bitcoin. It was never intended to be made as a stable currency, hence the cap of the total supply. Merchants are still accepting bitcoins. In fact you will see that every site that supports crypto currency as a payment option will have bitcoin included.
There are payment gateways that allows merchants to integrate and accept bitcoin from users while quickly converting it to fiat currency.

You're just trying to shill out GETCoin on here. Aside of these things on the question about bitcoin ever succeed as a currency then its evident even though not actually
on the side where fiat currencies do operate but rather as on the digital side and of course decentralization is always attached to it.
Its a different market but having the same target or goal but only on the anonymous and decentralized side of things.
Adoption is still on the move and lets see on how far it will go.

I don't think that Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency will ever succeed as a currency, as a stand-alone product.

If any of the big names in the fiat eco-system adopt crypto, like Visa or MasterCard, the mass user will use it even when the crypto is in the back-end. Without such collaboration, it will be impossible crypto to be mass adopted.

I will express an unpopular opinion - but BTC has not achieved any success as a currency. (Not to mention it TPS)
All this time and until now, the entire cryptocurrency has been solely as a gasket between the dollar and the user. After all, so smart people once decided to use BTC as money and shout about it everywhere, on every corner, but at the same time when they saying "Bitcoin" they mean "the number of dollars for 1 coin". In BTC, there is absolutely no sense in such a situation because it is a complication of life to yourself.
As a means of earning money through trade BTC is probably one of the best phenomena in the last 10-20 years, because of its exorbitant price.
But this price will not be eternal and it will not grow forever. If today my big mac costs $ 6 and tomorrow it will rise in price to $ 8 - this means that the day after tomorrow I will receive $ 2 more and in general it will suit me.
And if today big mac costs 0.00001 (conditionally) satoshi and tomorrow is already 2 BTC-then this is a reason to commit suicide or go into the wildest depression because all your savings are lost forever.

I do not think that we need any clarification about this topic. I think bitcoin is already a successful currency for the world. Though we are using bitcoin still as a share company in a share market but in a blockchain technology.  But i think it is able to becomes a site currency for any country. It is like another mobile banking wallet for anyone.  So if we get a chance to use this crypto in our country then it should be a useable for as a mobile banking wallet excluding carry any money. Like we use paypal, cash app, amazon pay, google pay, paytm, upi, bkash, rocket. So it will be a best thing for us. So i think it is already a successful currency.

Cant you see people buying and selling stuff and services all over the forum? People from all over the world.
It already succeeded

For bitcoin to become a currency, it needs to become an option first. The initial phase of P2P cash for bitcoin was purely voluntary driven by the needs and ideals of a niche group of people. What is driving the current growth and acceptance is something that everyone is probably still figuring out. The SoV usecase has captured the imagination for most people, especially due to the uncertainty of these times.

Now that it has value, it is slowly becoming an option AGAINST currency. Scaling and sufficient distribution needs to be the next step. Scaling may still come in the form of Layer 2 solutions but distribution is something that won't happen anytime soon. That is why the ideas of fair distribution, fair launches and Decentralized governance are gathering steam.

Bitcoin is a re-definition of currency so it may yet beckmd a currency for widespread transactions. Despite the occasional price drifts.

Bitcoin has already succeded as a money and as an asset already, but know that bitcoin can be called a cryptocurrency but not a currency. Example of a currency are papar fiat, they have no value, it is money that they are called that make the paper money have value which is the value in them. That said, bitcoin is already an established money and asset, it has become a time of institutions and many whales that are investing in it, it is well circulated all through the world and having a marketcap more than $500 billion now. It is clear about how it is possible bitcoin will hit $1 trillion, it can be next year,  the marketcap will be growing more and more in a way bitcoin will be the most successful money and asset on earth.

Relative price stability, compared to these early adopter years of exponential growth, ought to come after the vertical swing of the adoption S-curve is complete. https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.54906097

But that's probably not saying much. Gold is a very liquid market and still sees 5% days. Maybe Bitcoin can get there someday. But expecting it to trade like fiat currencies......that will never, ever happen.


I like the idea, particularly the use of demurrage to deter hoarding. Still, it would be quite experimental and I'm not sure how it would pan out in practice.


I think there will eventually be scalable and liquid Layer 2 protocols for daily transactions. It could take decades to get there though. Partially centralized solutions like Liquid may fill the gap during the interim years.

Bitcoin came long enough to prove to the public eye that he's worth it to named as the first and father of cryptocurrencies. The progress and achievements of bitcoin today's price was already a statement of success and worthy of the throne as the king of digital currencies. More milestone to come for bitcoin as we set a new year ahead of us and as well as the bitcoin adoption.

When I first discovered bitcoin back in 2011, I was very excited about it and was telling everyone to check it out.
     http://arimaa.com/arimaa/forum/cgi/YaBB.cgi?board=other;action=display;num=1305495730

At the time I had been studying money for a couple of years and was writing a paper called "Sound Money Without Commodities", so I really appreciated what bitcoin was doing. I even mentioned bitcoin in an early version of the paper.
    http://arimaa.com/money/SoundMoneyWCOrig.pdf

Although bitcoin has many good properties, I was more interested in a currency which would be very stable and could be used to price other goods and services. A currency that could be used for purchases on a daily basis. It seemed that the limited amount of bitcoin would cause it to behave much more like a digital commodity rather than a stable currency. It would not be accepted by many merchants unless they could convert it quickly to a fiat currency.

So far that has proven to be true. Major merchants that accept bitcoin use a processor that can convert it for them. We know that bitcoin is currently being used mostly as a store of value and hedge against national currencies; similar to gold, but with much better properties. That's an awesome use case and that alone can lead to valuations of trillions of dollars for bitcoin.

But will bitcoin ever succeed at being used as a stable currency? I've been told many times that when bitcoin matures to the point that everyone knows about bitcoin and owns some the price will stabilize and it can serve as a currency that is stable enough to be used for daily transactions; assuming that scaling to handle millions of transactions per second is not an issue. I still think that the price of bitcoin will be volatile even at this stage, purely due to speculation and the limited quantity. I also think that the world will need another currency that is stable by design. I've written this paper to capture some of the key features of such a currency. It would be based on UBI and demurrage and would be fair to everyone regardless of when they discover it.
    http://arimaa.com/money/GETCoin.pdf

Do you think there is room for another currency to provide the use case for daily transactions; or will bitcoin eventually succeed at this? If you think bitcoin will succeed, how long do you think it will take?

BTW, if you are interested to help with GETCoin, please PM me.