Taylor More is selling his family's bungalow with an asking price of $405,000 (that's Canadian dollars) or 5,521 Bitcoins. He would rather have the Bitcoins.
The two bedroom room and one bath bungalow in Alberta, Canada, sits on 2.9 acres of land along the Crowsnest River. That part of the deal is easy to understand. Why More wants Bitcoins isn't.
"I just really believe in them and once I read my first article about them, I was hooked," said More, who is 22 and said he used to be a currency trader. "I can take control of my own money, I don't have to worry about the government stepping in and taking it and freezing my account."
Bitcoins are digital currency. One Bitcoin is equal to $72.50. There are no actual coins, but they have been growing in their use. Stores like Walmart even sell gift cards for Bitcoins.
Note: More is still also listing the bungalow in terms of his countries fiat currency, Canadian dollars. Bitcoins can only be considered money when people are comfortable to price products in terms of bitcoins and nothing else. That is, they think in terms of bitcoins as a reference and not translate it into their native fiat currency before making transactions. Bitcoins would also have to be accepted by a broad base of the populous in a given area, since money is the most liquid commodity. Bitcoins are not there yet.
Will this ever occur? It is not known. The more the government oppresses the people by limiting transactions, such as street drug transactions, the more people will seek out the relative anonymity of bitcoins. If enough transactions occur with bitcoins, people are apt to start thinking strictly in terms of bitcoins in their exchanges, without translating back to a native fiat currency---at that point, if that ever occurs, bitcoins should be considered money. At present, bitcoins should be considered a combination fluctuating price receipt for money, price inflation hedge and interesting speculation on a climb in their value as bitcoins become more popular.
Note governments will attempt to fight the popularity of bitcoins with the rudimentary interventionist tools they have. The Treasury, for example, has announced that money laundering laws apply to exchanges who convert dollars to bitcoins.
Bitcoin has a flaw in that infinite amount of essenially identical "brands" of other crypotcurrencies can be created on the market and the only competenive advantage Bitcoin would has is it's preestablished user base. There is only one gold and one silver.
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