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by sks 4810 days ago
Given the volatility you may doubt the longevity of bitcoin as a currency, but since you can exchange it for some goods and services it looks like Real Money to me (at least right now).
1 comments

There are places you can exchange packs of cigarettes or boxes of Tide detergent for goods and services, too.
If we get down to the basics I think anything that is a medium of exchange is a currency. So in some circles cigarettes and Tide work as currency. Though these "currencies" are not legal tender.
Money is a store of value, a medium of exchange, and a unit of account.

A store of value is something you could accept in payment for work and hold on to.

A medium of exchange is something a shoemaker can use to obtain bread from a baker who doesn't want shoes.

A unit of account is something with a value stable enough that you can measure the value of arbitrary goods with it; like the Bloomberg article says, it's what enables a cheesemaker to put a price tag on cheese without forcing her to become a currency speculator.

Which of these functions does Bitcoin have?

Bitcoins slipped into speculative realm a couple of weeks ago and probably after the crash the speculators will exit the market. A stable bitcoin can easily serve the three functions you listed above. As I said in my first comment this volatility raises questions about longvity of bitcoins but they have not ceased to be real money, at least for now.

It is just a 3-4 year old technology lets wait and watch how this plays out before writing it off completely.

What makes you think the price of Bitcoin will ever stabilize? (You know, somewhere besides zero).
I dont know if bitcoins will ever stabilize or go down to zero but I also believe that no one can be so sure about how a free market is going to behave to just write it off at this moment.
"after the crash the speculators will exit the market"

Why? Now's the time to get in at the ground floor!