The top ten results of "bitcoin purpose" on Google concur that in it's current implementation, in how the community and business world view and use it, Bitcoin is meant to be an electronic currency.

The FTC recognizes it as a commodity, something that can be bought and sold. In it's current incarnation, it is the equivalent of bartering with baseball cards in lieu of cash.

If your point is true, then the purpose has been abandoned for the popular and current realization of Bitcoin as a means of electronic monetary value transfer.

I personally followed development and the community from the time it was introduced. It was always pitched as an 'anonymous' electronic currency.

>The FTC recognizes it as a commodity, something that can be bought and sold. In it's current incarnation, it is the equivalent of bartering with baseball cards in lieu of cash.

The US government has a stake in the failure of non-state-controlled currencies, though, so this isn't really evidence of anything.

It's evidence that it is popularly interpreted as something that has value and can be traded. So is money. I really can't care any less than I already don't if Bitcoin is or isn't a legal currency.

The point is it isn't commonly purported to be a 'settlement layer' but something else entirely.

I don't disagree with anything you've said. It's just that the government classification doesn't support (or refute) the point because the government isn't a disinterested party.

> you misunderstand the purpose of Bitcoin

That's quite a confidently presumptuous tone for an opinion that is clearly controversial at best.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/49c7ij/so_consens_...

>It's not meant to be a payment system

That's why it makes the front page of HackerNews when some random company starts accepting Bitcoin payments?