> By any reasonable definition, Bitcoin is a fiat currency.
Sure, if you entirely change the definition of fiat currency.
A fiat currency gets its value by being declared by government as legal tender, and then required by law to be accepted in a jurisdiction.
Bitcoin might share the "no intrinsic value" property of fiat, but that does not make it fiat. It's pretty much the opposite of fiat in every other respect.
Even for gold, the majority of its market value is not from industrial use -- it's from speculation driven by scarcity (pretty much exactly like Bitcoin.) This applies to gold jewelry too -- the scarcity of gold gives it its market value.
Sure, if you entirely change the definition of fiat currency.
A fiat currency gets its value by being declared by government as legal tender, and then required by law to be accepted in a jurisdiction.
Bitcoin might share the "no intrinsic value" property of fiat, but that does not make it fiat. It's pretty much the opposite of fiat in every other respect.
Even for gold, the majority of its market value is not from industrial use -- it's from speculation driven by scarcity (pretty much exactly like Bitcoin.) This applies to gold jewelry too -- the scarcity of gold gives it its market value.