Can Bitcoin be Considered a Real Currency?
Categories: Bitcoin
It is debatable whether Bitcoin is a currency at all and why any country would want to replace it with their existing currency as Bitcoin does not have any intrinsic value of its own.
By definition, a currency is “a system of money in general use in a particular country,” or “the fact or quality of being generally accepted or in use.” Currently, there is some traction in the number of companies using Bitcoin as a mode of payment, however, no major country or economy has accepted it as money in general use. An exception is El Salvador, which adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender in September 2021 and became the first country to do so.
One of the important reasons for the remarkable evolution of Bitcoin is the tightening of the know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) regulations by banks and financial institutions. There is now a much greater cross-border exchange of information between the countries about the transactions through the banking system.
Another important aspect is the acceptability of Bitcoin as a global payment mechanism, which is not linked to any particular country’s currency and hence, not directly impacted by the developments within a particular country.