Is Bitcoin Money? Will Bitcoin Be Money?
The question has been, "When moon?"
Or, the better question, "When adoption?"
And, often we talk about, "Is bitcoin money?"
And these questions are really difficult, because bitcoin is far superior to all that has been called money before. So, why don't people see that, and why hasn't everyone just accepted bitcoin as their lord and savior i mean, as money?
Well, we have a lot to learn about money…
What is money?
The bare, naked answers, is whatever people use as money.
And all those rules about "money", like fungibility, divisibility, store of value, etc. goes out the window compared to what is useful to the people at that time. In prison, sometimes its stamps, sometimes its cigarettes, some time its favors. In the outside world, sometimes its big bottles of Tide.
So, although bitcoin checks all of the boxes, except for "physical", of good money, it is not money yet. (However, it will soon cross the physical/digital barrier. This is going to be so neat) More people need to recognize it as money. More people need to use it as a medium of exchange.
The big road block with bitcoin becoming money is that we have very few people making something to sell, where they can choose to accept bitcoin instead of fiat. Most of the stuff you get at Wallymart cannot be gotten from an independent seller/manufacturer. So, the big money people really set the limits on adoption.
I see that as the biggest growth vector. Large money people using bitcoin to send money across borders, without bank interference and hassle, in ten minutes.
When adoption?
Probably at one million.
That will probably be when all the large corporations put bitcoin as a payment option.
But, the other half is that people need to be earning bitcoin, so they can spend bitcoin. And, although many contractors demand to be paid in bitcoin, that is a small percentage.
So, maybe the question is, when will people be paid in bitcoin?
A: When people will not accept other forms of payment. So, when fiat dies, and when CBDCs are shown to be evil, then people will not work unless they are paid in bitcoin. And then the bitcoin will flow.
Is bitcoin the future of money?
Actually, bitcoin will be around for less time than the Dollar has.
I know this will seem weird, because we haven't even gotten to adoption yet. However, after we get out of the bankster trap of debt based fiat currency, that we will develop better and better money-technology. Further, our need of money changes. We will be living in tribes/families soon, and so, we will have one money to trade within (if there is any) and another to trade between tribes/families. The currency traded within may be a derivative, a side chain of the bigger chain, and so they work seamlessly.
And then, further in the future, we will find that "money" is created when a maker of goods "sells" something that they have made. and this money that was created, will cease to exist when the maker gets the money back. When it completes the loop.
Or, maybe we will have the largest computer-aided-bartering system.
Whatever it is, it will be as far superior to bitcoin as bitcoin is to fiat currency.
So many of the rich are getting into bitcoin that it is almost 100% certain that no govern-cements will be able to ban it for long. And those govern-cements that do try to ban it will fail.
And yes, the big corporations are buying up lots of bitcoin, but soon, they will be spending it out to pay employees.
The idea being bandied about, about just borrowing against your bitcoin forever, will not work out, because you need a printable fiat currency to make those loans, and that is dying, or will die completely after more people are using bitcoin.
However, bitcoin may grow in value faster than you can ever spend it. At least until full adoption and people start setting prices in satoshis.