Bitcoin: A Commodity Undergoing an Identity Crisis

For a currency to be meaningful it has to be easily exchanged; a currency is by definition a means of exchange and another requirement is that it has to retain value. Investors have used it more like a commodity, that is speculative as an investment. It also resembles a commodity like gold through the concept of mining which produces scarcity.

The volatility of bitcoins pricing with the limitation on the volume of transactions limits, in the time it takes for a transaction to complete, which in some cases can be days, the value of the bitcoin with its volatility can change dramatically. Blockchain due to the decentralisation that requires the participation of every node will make transactions latent. Bitcoin with the anonymity becomes even slower.

For blockchain to perform as a widely adopted currency would require much greater transaction speeds. Blockchain due to the decentralisation cannot easily scale and if it can't scale it remains a commodity, not a currency. Bitcoin with its architectural limitations will have a hard time, if ever, in meeting the definition of a currency.

Bitcoin, however, did get the world thinking about blockchain, and blockchain has a world of uses beyond purchasing pizza.