Andreas Antonopoulos, the author of Mastering Bitcoin, recently spoke about Bitcoin as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a reserve currency during a Q&A session on YouTube.
When asked about whether Bitcoin could be a standard for other cryptocurrencies, the same way Gold was for money, Antonopoulos highlighted that this was already the case in point. He stated that the king coin was the “reserve currency for all other cryptocurrencies.” He went on to point that Bitcoin was the cryptocurrency with the largest amount of liquidity, adding that it was the first cryptocurrency that was traded on the vast majority of exchanges.
He said,
“It has the most exchanges and trading pairs against fiat currencies and other cryptocurrencies and it has the largest market capitalization, which therefore makes it by default the reserve currency of the Internet of Money […] will it stay like that, we don’t know but right now Bitcoin is the reserve currency of the internet of money”
During the session, Antonopoulos also spoke about how to determine the value of a salary in Bitcoin, whether monthly or weekly or daily average in USD. He said that this had “a lot to do with the difference between using Bitcoin as a medium of exchange and a store of value.” In terms of doing accounting and paying salary, Antonopoulos stated that he personally makes payments in U.S Dollars as it was the currency used for accounting and reporting taxes in the United States.
“That’s essentially the concept of legal tender because the U.S. dollar is legal tender because it’s the only currency that is accepted for paying taxes and because I have to account for all of my taxes in U.S. dollars, that’s the unit I use for pricing.”
However, in a scenario where the other party asks for the payment to be made in Bitcoin, then a transfer of Bitcoin equivalent of $100 would be made, said the author, adding that it was the same when it came to offering his services.
“[…] as agreed on my contract they will make a payment in Bitcoin at the equivalent rate of $100 based on the exchange rate of that moment. I specify a particular exchange rate provider for all of my contracts in order to have consistency because different exchanges might be showing a different exchange rate usually small fluctuations”
