, Columnist
Bitcoin Is an Implausible Currency
It's not competitive as a payment system, so maybe its value is as money. But it makes terrible money.
Is bitcoin money, or a payment system? Mounds, or Almond Joy? Great taste, or less filling?
If bitcoin is good at both those jobs, then it’s probably got a bright future. If it’s good at neither of them … well, farewell, bitcoin, we hardly knew ye. In a previous column I tackled the question of whether bitcoin was going to replace existing payments systems, and concluded that well, no, probably not. So. Today we ask whether it makes good money.