[mrguyorama]

You can barter with anything you want, that doesn't make it a currency. In fact, bitcoin has a way harder path to being recognized as a currency explicitly because there is no army to enforce it as a currency. That means it can only really be a currency by consensus, and if walmart and kroger don't take it, good luck making people agree to it being a currency.

Bitcoin does not meet the desires laid out in the whitepaper, not even close. Bitcoin isn't even a currency by it's own standards.

[freeAgent]

Barter goods also serve a purpose other than as a medium of exchange. And Bitcoin is legal tender in El Salvador (not that I like El Salvador or their Bitcoin law), so it actually is a currency.

[bcrl]

At least with barter exchange tends to happen in person so you can figure out if you're being scammed before you hand over your goods. Bitcoin gives you the worst of all worlds by making the exchange completely impersonal while lacking the ability to look your counter-party in the eye. The two are most decidedly not the same.

[freeAgent]

Nothing stops you from exchanging Bitcoin in person, though, so I’m not sure what’s been lost there. Bitcoin can also use a multi-signature escrow. Many services are set up like this.