Passinsky, Asya2025-04-152025-04-152021-08-012196-966310.1515/jso-2020-0022https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14018/27275Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Asya Passinsky.The advent of virtual currencies such as bitcoin raises a pressing question for lawmakers, regulators, and judges: should bitcoin and other virtual currencies be classified as money or currency for legal and regulatory purposes? I examine two different approaches to answering this question-a descriptive approach and a normative approach. The descriptive approach says that bitcoin and other virtual currencies should be classified as money or currency just in case they really are money or currency, whereas the normative approach says that this question of classification should be answered on the basis of substantive normative considerations. I argue against the descriptive approach and in favor of the normative approach.enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessBitcoinFinanceLawMoneySocial ontologyVirtual currencySocial PsychologyCommunicationLanguage and LinguisticsAnthropologyPhilosophyEconomics, Econometrics and Finance (miscellaneous)Journal articlehttp://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85103199397&partnerID=8YFLogxKPassinsky, A 2021, 'Should bitcoin be classified as money?', Journal of Social Ontology, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 281-292. https://doi.org/10.1515/jso-2020-002212366970