Will bitcoin become money?

Whether something is money is not a question of either/or. The ability of an item to fulfil the functions of money is best understood as a spectrum. Conceivably, this means any item exists on the monetary spectrum and can change its position on the spectrum if its monetary properties were to improve or deteriorate.

As a peer-to-peer electronic form of cash, bitcoin was designed to fulfil the functions of money. It is therefore endowed with attractive monetary properties such as absolute scarcity, peer-to-peer electronic transactability, and censorship-resistance. With increasing levels of adoption, some of bitcoin’s monetary properties, such as liquidity and volatility, will improve its ability to function as money. If bitcoin adoption reaches global scale, there is a chance it could become as good at serving the functions of money as the most commonly used global currencies.