Quote from: fresno on September 21, 2010, 03:27:08 PM

Wikipedia says "Money is any object that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally, a standard of deferred payment." [cited omitted]

Webster's Online Dictionary defines money as:

1. The most common medium of exchange; functions as legal tender; "we tried to collect the money he owed us".
2. Wealth reckoned in terms of money; "all his money is in real estate".
3. The official currency issued by a government or national bank; "he changed his money into francs".
4. A piece of metal, as gold, silver, copper, etc., coined, or stamped, and issued by the sovereign authority as a medium of exchange in financial transactions between citizens and with government; also, any number of such pieces; coin.
5. Any written or stamped promise, certificate, or order, as a government note, a bank note, a certificate of deposit, etc., which is payable in standard coined money and is lawfully current in lieu of it; in a comprehensive sense, any currency usually and lawfully employed in buying and selling.
6. In general, wealth; property; as, he has much money in land, or in stocks; to make, or lose, money.

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I maintain that per these definitions, Bitcoin cannot possibly be described as "money". And further, I think that those who do describe Bitcoin as "money" are doing this community a disservice.

I tend to think that Bitcoin IS a money, in the more common and usual sense, in the sense of the wikipedia definition.
According to the Webster's definition that gives the OP, it doesn't fill the 3d and 4th requirement to be considered as a money. But is it still relevant in the contemporary economic scheme, and after the digital revolution?

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