A Philosopher's Perspective on Bitcoin (#1)
Bitcoin is as real as we choose to make it.
Things we know : 1) There are exchanges were one can purchase Bitcoin with a checking account, debit card or even credit card; 2) When one purchases a Bitcoin a debit is made against one's fiat currency account, in exchange for which one is credited with a given amount of Bitcoin; 3) That Bitcoin may be sold to another individual in a transaction that credits one's fiat account with the market value of the Bitcoin at the time of sale; 4) Whether one has made a profit or a loss is reflected in one's fiat account balance after the purchase and sale are completed.
What more would a doubter in the concreteness of Bitcoin need to convince them of the realness of Bitcoin?
Are any or all of the above steps unnecessary to the argument that Bitcoin is real?
Congratulations @basqphilosopher! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPThanks!
You might argue that bitcoin value is based on fiat currency, because an investor in it would ultimately cash out and compare to the previous price to gauge how much they profited/lost.
However in the case, where one is using bitcoin as a main currency to trade other coins, in order to gain more bitcoin. Then this is another story as they are independent of the fiat currency
although its utility as a main currency is limited
So you would say that realness is in part measured by the purchasing power of fiat or Bitcoin that is lost or gained depending on the measuring currency. It is just not a matter of a ledger entry that is positive or negative. There must be some utility that one gains as a result. The current utility of fiat is broad while the utility of Bitcoin is more limited, at least for the moment.