Post
Topic
Board Economics
Re: What would happen if Bitcoin became a legal currency?
by
deisik
on 14/10/2016, 18:06:47 UTC
Then the competition for all of us will going to be tough enough as that is going to add a lot of users if this is going to be implemented. And for sure many people are going to start up businesses with bitcoins so if making bitcoin is going to be a legal currency to a country then that is going to boost the whole bitcoin industry.

Bitcoin is legal in most countries...

As I understand it from what the OP meant to say in the opening post, he was referring to Bitcoin as a legal tender, with which you can legally pay (or collect, for that matter) taxes and duties. Given that, Bitcoin is nowhere near this, not in a single country (if we don't consider some pseudo "states" like Sealand). The Russian government was going to officially recognize it as a "foreign currency", though...

But this still doesn't cut it as a legal tender

The bitcoin might not be the legal tender. But if a government can accpet it as a tax payment, that is excellent.

I think you don't quite understand what legal tender actually means. Below is a definition of legal tender in the US (emphasis added):

Quote
United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues. Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts

Basically, officially accepting something as a payment for taxes makes it into a legal tender. Legal tender is not what you pay for goods in a shopping mall. It is what you pay to authorities and what they accept as payment for compulsory financial contributions imposed on you by themselves. You may not like it, but they don't care