Yahoo and Google start to list Bitcoin (BTC) currency

[John Ralls]

On Jun 28, 2014, at 6:19 PM, Rainer Dorsch <ml at bokomoko.de> wrote:

> On Saturday 28 June 2014 16:18:33 you wrote:
>> On Jun 28, 2014, at 12:20 PM, Rainer Dorsch <ml at bokomoko.de> wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>> 
>>> Yahoo and Google start to list the bitcoin currency
>>> 
>>> http://thenextweb.com/google/2014/06/12/google-and-yahoo-finance-now-show-> 
>> the-price-of-bitcoin/
>>> 
>>> e.g.
>>> 
>>> http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=BTCUSD=X
>>> 
>>> What is the status of the addition of BTC to gnucash?
>> 
>> You could use it now as a security (which the US Internal Revenue Service
>> requires), except that the max denominator is still 1E6. You could work
>> around that by using milli-bitcoin with a 1E5 max denominator.
>> 
>> 2.8 will be able to support the additional required precision, though
>> Christian Stimming and I are at the moment having a frank discussion about
>> what's the best way to get there: See the "Rethinking Numerics" thread in
>> this list.
>> 
>> It isn't going to be treated as a currency until the ISO's 4217 Maintenance
>> Agency says it is one.
>> 
> 
> The downside of not treating it as a currency is that its "exchange" rates may 
> not be maintained through finance::quote.
> 
> Why do you want to limit gnucash to the performance of a (slow moving?) 
> standardization organization?

If it's a security, then it has prices rather than exchange rates, but that has noting to do with Finance::Quote. If the quotes are available on Yahoo in the same way that other securities and currencies are, then F::Q can get the quotes.

Accounting is all about standards, and GnuCash is an accounting program. Besides, in the USA at least bitcoin is legally a commodity and purchases using bitcoin are barter exchanges: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-25/bitcoin-is-property-not-currency-in-tax-system-irs-says.html That gives our position a legal basis as well. AFAIK no other financial regulator has said anything about bitcoin's status as a currency. Do you know of any such authority or convention that recognizes bitcoin as legal tender?

Regards,
John Ralls