Re:Goldman Sachs: Bitcoin Is Not A Currency
by lutusp on Wednesday March 12, 2014 @01:46PM
(#7387082)
All true. One difference between Bitcoin and dollars is public perception driven by multiple forces -- experience, some untested assumptions, and social expectations. Alto TBTF (Too Big To Fail) plays a part -- we're not going to allow dollars to fluctuate too wildly and destabilize the economy.
But another difference between Bitcoin and traditional media of exchange is that Bitcoin relies on very good, utterly reliable software, and that doesn't exist at the moment.
But let's not judge the article and assertion based on our preconceived bias against Goldman Sachs. I think that their conclusion “We would argue that bitcoin, and other digital currencies, lie somewhere on the boundary between currency, commodity and financial asset” makes a lot of sense.
Really, Bitcoin does have more similarities to a commodity than a currency (especially a fiat currency). It's fungible, untraceable, and unregulated.