Bitcoin: Currency or Commodity?
Earlier this month, a US Senate committee described virtual currencies as a “legitmate financial service” and since then the value of a single bitcoin has surpassed $1,000. In January, it was trading at $20.
There has been continued debate about whether bitcoin is a a ponzi scheme or poised to change the world. Earlier this week, The Guardian reporter Alex Hern explained, “Until now, what pundits called in a rolling-eye fashion ‘the new peer-to-peer cryptocurrency’ had been seen just as a digital form of gold [and silver], with all the associated speculation, stake-claiming and even ‘mining’; perfect for the digital wild west of the internet, but no use for real transactions.”
The Senate Hearing
This month, The FBI and Justice Department’s Criminal Division warned the committee about the increasing use of such currencies by “malicious actors” including drug dealers, pornography traffickers and perpetrators of large-scale fraud.
Committee chairman, Senator Thomas Carper, observed, “Virtual currencies, perhaps most notably Bitcoin, have captured the imagination of some, struck fear among others, and confused the heck out of the rest of us.”
But
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