Swedish central bank does not consider bitcoin to be a form of payment

On Twitter, Sweden’s central bank Sveriges Riksbank is debating whether or not Bitcoin is money.

For Bitcoin to be recognised as a currency, it must satisfy the following three criteria: operate as a custodian (store of value), provide means of payment, and be used as a unit of account. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not currencies, according to a series of tweets sent by the central bank.

The excessive price fluctuation of Bitcoin, according to the central bank of Sweden, renders it ineffective as a “value preserver.” Users of a currency should have faith in the currency’s price stability throughout time, according to the bank.

For the bank, Bitcoin’s payment status is questionable since “no accurate data on how many firms accept Bitcoin” is given. For the sake of comparison, the bank compares the 29,500 Bitcoin ATMs listed on Coinmap to the 60 million+ businesses which accept Visa as a form of payment.

According to the Riksbank, the currency Bitcoin is unable to act as a store of value or a method of payment. It’s worth noting, though, that nations often price goods and services in their own currency, not in the virtual currency Bitcoin.

As a concluding statement, the bank writes “Bitcoin typically does not satisfy the three tasks and is hence not money, at least not like money in the conventional financial system and society.” Also included in the tweet is a reference to Ethereum.

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