[gnaritas]

Bitcoin is different, but by no means is it or will it in any way obsolete government issued currency (it's wrong to call it fiat as if bitcoin isn't also fiat, which it is). It is however the only crypto currency that matters and will remain so.

[danbruc]

It is however the only crypto currency that matters and will remain so.

Or it will just die once users have to pay the real transaction costs and it becomes really obvious how expensive that system is.

[21echoes]

This. Bitcoin is currently paying transaction fees through inflation, but as the halving process continues, those fees will shift back into the marketplace in a less implicit way, as miners need to continue being paid.

https://blockchain.info/charts/cost-per-transaction-percent

[gnaritas]

Tech like this will never die, it will just become less used if that problem isn't solved, but there will always be some group of people willing to use it despite those charges due to the nature of decentralized cash transfers without a trusted party.

[mbrock]

Dictionary definitions of fiat money involve states that enforce the legal tender status of the money. In that sense, BTC is not fiat money.

[abritinthebay]

True, "fiat money" would technically be "inconvertible paper money made legal tender by a government decree."

Bitcoin by contrast is "inconvertible digital money made legal tender by no-one because it's not legal tender".

So.. it's fiat in the sense that "by fiat" sense - which is where fiat money as a term comes from, but not in the strict "fiat money" sense of the phrase.

[gnaritas]

Fiat also means money that isn't a commodity or backed by a commodity. Bitcoin is fiat in this sense the same as USD. Additionally, the blockchain and it's rules are a form of government that is issuing bitcoin and thus it qualifies as government issued as well. You don't have to be a state to be a government.