The United Nations recognises 180 official currencies. Would Bitcoin ascend to this list one day? El Salvador doesn’t quite inspire confidence even though it was the first country in the world to recognise Bitcoin as legal tender two years ago.
Still, the Lightning Network is steadily making inroads into our everyday lives. Some of us are actively checking for merchants that will accept sats as payment while others buy gift cards as a way of spending their sats. However, do you foresee that the Lightning Network will become commonplace in the future? Even if it were to increase in prevalent, do you think that it would be a good enough reason for Bitcoin to become to an official currency?
Do you necessarily care if Bitcoin becomes an official currency?
not important
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It's not valuable or important for bitcoin to become legal tender; it's valuable/important for it to be given a status so that users are not subject to massive persecution.
As they are today, in much of the world.
Examples: heavy taxation for usage, for selling, trading. Wide scale bank account closures without justification. Ludicrous privacy invasions required to interact with a company selling bitcoin. Police and financial authorities persecuting, confiscating and generally criminalising any activity with it.
Just remove all that, that's what we care about.
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Just sink this in...
Any retailer or individual could refuse to use a legal tender. Nobody can force you to use it. Why? What is the point of a legal tender then?
The point is that you cannot force a retailer to accept legal tender or indeed any other form of tender. If, however, you buy something from them and there is no contractual barrier to the use of any form of tender, and you offer legal tender in payment, and they refuse it, then they cannot enforce the debt in court.
That's what legal tender means: it's about discharging debts. If you incur a debt you can discharge it with legal tender, but you cannot be forced to incur the debt in the first place, if you see what I mean...
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I think you do not make the difference (or don't know) between legal tender and currency and money.
Define
  • recognized by a gov.
  • official currency
  • what is the gov? WHO is the gov?
  • why do I need somebody's approval to use something I want?
  • legal tender. Do you really know what does it means legal tender?
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Not really. In fact, I believe that bitcoin future is as a black market money.
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Bitcoin doesn't "need" to be recognized as official tender to reach global adoption. BUT... that would help a lot. Imagine if only 10 or 20 countries make the same Salvador move... That would change everything.
  1. Bitcoin has an image problem. Most people on the planet see it as something "weird", "underground", "unofficial", "dangerous". Lack of knowledge for sure, but still. The fact that a country officially adopts it is reassuring (even if it appears as a paradox for bitcoiners, since Bitcoin represents an "anti-government" stance).
  2. Becoming legal tender in various places would enforce the idea that Bitcoin is a de facto real currency. This is why all institutions from the old fiat world (IMF, ECB and such) tried to ridicule Salvador and are still fighting so much, even rejecting/banning the use of the word "cryptocurrency". They will do everything they can to avoid that Bitcoin reaches "real currency status". And the only way to fight back is to make Bitcoin more "official".
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No, as long as i can buy food and shelter from other people with it i dont care what the UN designates bitcoin.
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