And here we return to the currency vs. store of value debate.
In terms of currency, it goes back to utility. At the moment, Bitcoin (or almost any other crypto) has no or limited utility. By that I mean it is pretty well isolated from the real world – while you can pay for some things with it, you cannot pay for even a significant portion of things you might spend money on in a given day.
Some merchants accept it, that's true, but ya, the idea that you can move your money into BTC and buy groceries, a coffee, pay your rent, buy lunch, pay for the taxi, etc are not possible now unless you really go out of your way. In my neighbourhood (capital city of a north central European country) you can buy coffee at one place with Bitcoin but there's nothing else around to use it on.
And if the merchant takes it, then what? So now they either use a service that accepts BTC and takes a cut of it to translate it to fiat or they let you transfer BTC to their wallet as a way to pay, so they still have to move it into fiat to pay their bills, employees, etc.
And as a store value, it's pretty volatile. It's been bleeding since January.
Don't get me wrong, I believe in digital money and the concept of Bitcoin, but I think there's still a long way to go. It's not inconceivable that it hits 0.
In terms of currency, it goes back to utility. At the moment, Bitcoin (or almost any other crypto) has no or limited utility. By that I mean it is pretty well isolated from the real world – while you can pay for some things with it, you cannot pay for even a significant portion of things you might spend money on in a given day.
Some merchants accept it, that's true, but ya, the idea that you can move your money into BTC and buy groceries, a coffee, pay your rent, buy lunch, pay for the taxi, etc are not possible now unless you really go out of your way. In my neighbourhood (capital city of a north central European country) you can buy coffee at one place with Bitcoin but there's nothing else around to use it on.
And if the merchant takes it, then what? So now they either use a service that accepts BTC and takes a cut of it to translate it to fiat or they let you transfer BTC to their wallet as a way to pay, so they still have to move it into fiat to pay their bills, employees, etc.
And as a store value, it's pretty volatile. It's been bleeding since January.
Don't get me wrong, I believe in digital money and the concept of Bitcoin, but I think there's still a long way to go. It's not inconceivable that it hits 0.