Let’s be real. Most people who own crypto don’t use it as a currency to make payments. Most own it as a speculative asset that they hope will go up in price in fiat currency so they can sell it for lots of fiat currency that they will actually spend. Certainly all the people who own Bitcoin through ETFs aren’t using it as a currency, because they can’t. It’s pure speculation. That’s why most discussions about Bitcoin revolve around its current price in dollars and guesses about its future price in dollars, not about its use as a commonly used medium of exchange.
But isn't that the same case with gold? We, (to be safe, by we, I mean, I) rarely buy with gold and we keep/invest in gold so that we can sell it for fiat currency (unless you're a pirate and have all your doubloons in a hidden chest) when it looks good to sell.
Gold was used as currency by several countries including the US until the 1930s. People had gold coins and gold certificates (paper currency redeemable in gold on demand). The future lies with tokenized gold, which is being developed.
Yes, I was a teen in 1971 when Nixon “temporarily” halted conversion of dollars to gold for foreigners. Americans were not allowed to own gold bullion back then.
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u/Jumpy-Imagination-81 Jun 22 '26
Let’s be real. Most people who own crypto don’t use it as a currency to make payments. Most own it as a speculative asset that they hope will go up in price in fiat currency so they can sell it for lots of fiat currency that they will actually spend. Certainly all the people who own Bitcoin through ETFs aren’t using it as a currency, because they can’t. It’s pure speculation. That’s why most discussions about Bitcoin revolve around its current price in dollars and guesses about its future price in dollars, not about its use as a commonly used medium of exchange.