Bitcoin Forum

I was watching the charts very closely during the Greek madness that went on during the past few weeks. One would have expected gold to get at least a little boost from the crisis, yet it continued it's downward trend, seemingly completely unaffected by the Greek crisis.

Bitcoin on the other hand experienced notable boosts, you can actually track significant spikes in the price of bitcoin against certain days when Greece made decisions or certain events happened in Greece that caused people to look for alternative stores of value and currency.

This has me wondering if bitcoin is affecting gold. Gold has been declining in price ever since 2012. It seems to be that for the past 5000 years gold has been valuable because it was the ultimate form of value storage on the planet, and a pretty good currency, making it the best money on the planet. Without it's use as store of value and money, if those utilities are removed from it's value and price, it's intrinsic value as just an industrial metal is minuscule in comparison.

Now that bitcoin is on the scene, it seems that gold is no longer the ultimate store of value nor the ultimate money on the planet. Bitcoin improves on the things which make gold a good store of value and at the same time integrates improvements on the medium of exchange features of paper money making it not only a superior store of value, but also a superior currency or medium of exchange, making bitcoin the best money on the planet.

If bitcoin is now the ultimate money on the planet, will this cause gold to crash to it's intrinsic value as an industrial metal used in circuitry and jewelry?

No.

Stupid mainstream media now says (like many times before) : "Gold is dead"

-> you should buy gold (& BTC )

I don't think Bitcoin has reached "ultimate money on the planet" status.

I think the trends you're noticing are a coincidence. The volume of bitcoin users or transactions is still very, very small compared to fiat currency transactions. And because bitcoin's transaction volume is so relatively small it doesn't take as much activity to move the price a greater swing one way or the other. A bunch of us on this forum talk about the Greek currency crisis, theorize how bitcoin would be the safe alternative, buy some more bitcoin anticipating a possible run, and then see that run up (due to our cycle of conversation.)

It's possible that the rest of the world didn't see any need to "flock to gold" because all the other fiat currencies are (relatively) stable, not linked to the Greek currency success or failure. And the people of Greece can't easily move their money to gold anyway, given the austerity measures that were already in place.

Also, Gold is priced at its intrinsic value if the current price is what people believe its worth, if the market value equals its perceived true value. I.e., if people believe that gold is really scarce (and not just supply-controlled by jewelry companies) then it's current value is its intrinsic value.

When I say that bitcoin is the ultimate money on the planet I say this from a purely technical standpoint. The qualities that make anything a sound money are in general store of value, medium of exchange, fungibility, unit of account, divisibility, and portability.

Bitcoin is superior to gold on a purely technical standpoint as money because gold is inherently flawed in the fact that it cannot realistically stand alone as it's own form of currency. Consider someone buying a multimillion dollar house with gold, are they going to load up a truck with all the gold and drive it to the sellers vault? How long does that take and how much does that cost? How would you buy a book on amazon.com with gold? Are you going to mail some gold coins to amazon's headquarters?

In order to use gold, a currency must always be created which acts as a receipt for gold, or a gold certificate which is redeemable in gold, or a bank note that you can trade and which can be redeemed in gold, that solves the problem of gold's difficulty as a medium of exchange. This inherent weakness in gold which necessitates the creation of certificates receipts and bank notes is what makes it inferior to bitcoin.

Bitcoin has the value storage capacity of gold because of it's scarcity and the rate at which it is generated, but includes the best form of medium of exchange we have ever seen so that there is no need to produce receipts, certificates, notes that are more easily tradable. Bitcoin is already easily tradable, unlike gold, and even improves on golds value storage capacity because of it's definite predictable certain scarcity. It is the ultimate sound money therefore.

History shows that when certificates for gold are printed, or some currency is created that is backed by gold, there is no way to prevent more of them being printed than exists gold that backs them up, this causes bank runs, economic instability, eventually only partial redeem ability of the notes in gold, and inevitably purely fiat money that is no longer backed by gold. This cycle repeats over and over in history, but it stops with bitcoin.

People still invest in ‘gold’ or ‘bonds’ as a way to save money an grow their wealth. But when you need to transfer your gold across the border or withdraw your bonds, you’re sure to draw some attention. Or worse, you might even get robbed. But if you use Bitcoin, then you can just store your money in a digital wallet, and take your property anywhere in the world without a single question being asked. Simple!

I thinki now why gold prices is lowering...


When the crisis hit the US some of the whales bought gold. When the stock market started to pick up again they would talk in public about gold and others started to buy gold. Then the whales sold out and the sheep heard was stuck with the gold. A common pump and dump....

Gold has never been a good investment to ordinary people but a safe haven trough crises for rich people.

I think yes, because gold is going down... and why not? Bitcoin can crash more than only gold.. we just need to do something for it, bring more people to Bitcoin and let big companies accept it :)

it could easily, and bitcoin has already done this, go to the "Gold collapsing , Bitcoin up" thread in speculation board, also seeing how gold is falling hard this time will be even more brutal, the distance that bitcoin will take with the next mega pump, will be bigger

if bitcoin can manage to surpass 2k in value(not really that difficulty, when you see plenty of prediction which consider 10k an easy step in few years) i think gold is done and crashed for good

We'll have tons of money inevitably migrating from Gold to BTC in the future. When old gold holders die and the young generation inherits it, if they are dumb as bricks they'll realize it's worth investing some of your gold in BTC. There is so much gold compared to BTC, the space for growth is real.

http://bitcoinvsgold.com/images/charts/bitcoin_gold_marketcap.png

Log progression. We getting there:

http://bitcoinvsgold.com/images/charts/bitcoin_vs_gold_chart.png

I don't think gold will ever be destroyed in prices. It has survived 5000 years, I don't see why it wouldn't survive another 5000.

If you look at gold prices historically, you can see that gold has long periods of growth and long periods of depreciation so the current situation where gold is losing its value is quite normal.

Now, did the gold get another competitor in bitcoin, it certainly is! :)
Will gold's prices be influenced by bitcoin in the future, sure they will. It rests to be seen how and in what ways. We will let this be shown by the markets.

bitcoin is growing for sure but it is not the ultimate currency that can conquer the world and replace every other sort of money or valuable objects .
IMO Gold is always going to be the valuable metal and because of its usage in a lot of stuff it will never lose its market, but at the same time bitcoin is a growing market which attracts more and more people everyday.

Can someone post that information again, or a link to it, where they say that if only 10% of the investors in gold, invested that money into Bitcoin, it would triple the price of Bitcoin.
I cannot remember the exact figures, but it was a massive figure. I would hope more people would find Bitcoin as the safe haven, and not the other way around.
I have searched the internet, and I could not find any reason for the steep decline in the gold price. Have the found new deposits or cheaper technology to extract it?

I don't think it ever will... I truely believe BTC will become a mainstream payment method, but i don't think it'll ever replace gold... People love shiny things  ;D

Yes I definitely think so.
By watching the increased craziness about Bitcoin I think it will crash gold some day.

Increased craziness? On this forum or in the real world? Because i never hear people talk about it. Never hear anything in the news. Never read about it in the papers...

Price of gold is mostly linked to US Dollars and oil prices, not very sensitive to a country's debt defaults (unless it's of a major economic power).


Bitcoin is not affecting gold at all. You are expecting too much from a crypto/payment system. Bitcoin will not de-throne gold. Gold is so widely accepted as a store of value for thousands of years, it would be very difficult to change.

No there are those who will always hold gold.  Lots depend on it as part of their portfolio.   And it's been used for many many years.

BTC might be added to someones funds, but most won't switch from gold to BTC.

Gold market is an ancient a huge market that have countries as owners of gold

So bitcoin could not do anything against gold,they play in different leagues

Lol, do you really think something with a $4,000,000,000 market cap could crash something that has a known market cap at least 1000x that?


 :o

Gold is a physical lump. Bitcoin is not. That's all that a huge amount of people will care about for a long time to come.

If you took out racial memory the concept of Bitcoin as a store of value kicks gold's arse. You can send it anywhere, divide it, pay with it, store it with a few memorised words, it can't be counterfeited, if you buy it it's unquestionably the real deal and it's yours within a few minutes.

In comparison gold is a fucking joke. If you have physical it might be fake. There's hardly anywhere to sell it. No one'll take it for payment. You can't transport it easily or divide it. As for paper gold, oh boy.

But trying to change the hardwired preference of the billions of people who value gold is also a fucking joke. Maybe in a decade or three things'll look very different.

That is true, when it comes to transfer your funds, I think bitcoin is very safe as compared to the gold, As you cannot travel with the huge amount of gold to different countries as the custom departments would ready to question you, but in bitcoin you can travel with any number of bitcoins in your digital wallet.

You tell me: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-gold-is-falling-and-wont-get-up-again-2015-07-20 (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-gold-is-falling-and-wont-get-up-again-2015-07-20)

it mean reaching a price of 300k per coin to crash gold, well not impossible, but it could happen after 2024, even if it happen for 1 day, due to the unstable nature of bitcoin that can build random high pump, we could say that gold is crash

Gold exists for thousands of years , There is nothing on the world that could screw Gold on the world including Bitcoin or any cryptoo currency  .

They did not need Bitcoin to screw up Gold: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YtMaGEH2RQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YtMaGEH2RQ)

I don't think so. Are two different assets and everyone of them serve for different purposes. Bitcoin serve to pay for goods only in internet while gold serve as a reserve assets. Maybe are coins in gold but I don't think that someone use them to buy something in everyday life. Both of them has value and is thought that their value is or will be stable in time. Maybe their value even will be increased in time. Especially the value of bitcoin. But gold remain gold. It is the referring point for most of the fiat money in circulation even if this is not official. And this is not few.

I dont think either, it can not bitcoin crash the gold, gold is something real and bitcoin is just digital

Gold has already lost to fiat in terms of usage.

I don't know if gold will disappear, but its definitely in trouble because its difficult to check if the gold is real or tungsten-filled.
We also know that most "gold" is paper gold... which is quite funny really.

I have also seen physical gold that was marked with lasers or something - so am I trusting the lasers or the gold?

Actually trading real gold incurs heavy fees/costs of course.


Also what exactly is the case for gold?

Investment: Land is probably safer and more profitable.

Doomsday: Just buying supplies with cash will probably be more likely to work. If you CAN'T buy stuff anymore
where are you going to spend the gold/silver coins you hoarded 50 years waiting for disaster?
Canned food would help you more.

Currency: Hasn't been for decades/centuries?

Currency collapse: Any investment, bitcoin, job or ownership will help you there.


LTB told me they don't even use silver anymore at "Pork fest"? Its mostly Bitcoin now.

As far as i know the Gold will never disappear, at least not in the real life.
Maybe in digital tech it can be lost but in real life we will touch it

OP, I'd be a bit skeptical that this perception has
reached the masses yet.  Otherwise we'd have
a larger market and higher price for Bitcoin.

But yeah, in the next 10,20,30 years, Gold
will go down for sure and Bitcoin will go up
for all the reasons you pointed out.

its need too many years because Gold is holding by many countries in huge amount and bitcoin is still no recognize by any government

yes bitcoin might crash gold because of its ever changing value....

I think yes dude, because in my country gold rate is down... And now I regret to invest in gold  :'( :'(

Yes Bitcoin Can crash gold very easily.
But first whales have to move out from Bitcoin so that there will be a steady growth and not these biweekly pumps and dumps.

I can follow bitcoin going up and gold doing down... But BTC crashing gold seems impossible for me (just my opinion)

gold is gold,It was used as a bargaining chip already two thousand years ago. Bitcoin is digital gold, another story

Yes. Just like the market cap of fax machines was still 1000x that of email at one time. It's not like they are going to use their market caps to buy weapons and fight each other to the death. The market cap comparison is irrelevant. Obviously if bitcoin crashed gold it would mean that all of the money from gold is transferring over to bitcoin. Gold's market cap shrinks as bit coin's rises. Bitcoin is sucking it's market cap straight out of gold's.

If someone is buying gold as a store of value, and then learns that bitcoin is a superior store of value, he's likely to start buying bitcoin, and perhaps buying bitcoin WITH his gold. Do you see? The value of gold being transferred to bitcoin as the worlds best store of value. The comparison of their current market caps give no indication as to whether or not bitcoin could crash gold.

IMHO, the right way to think about bitcoin in the global economy is that it's kinda viral. Pretty much unstoppable; it will eat up most transactions over time.
As a result, I'd guess it will take over from gold as a wealth storage method, and gold price will drop - maybe not a sudden crash, but an inevitable gold decline.

The strong point of bitcoin is not the being currency but being technology. So the success of bitcoin will be more the technology behing it than the use of it like a currency. In this point of view has nothing to do with the gold. Gold is another thing. It serve as a world reserve while bitcoin as a technology which will disrupt to many other technologies.

That's correct. The technology behind bitcoin will change most of the technologies actually in use becoming those obsolete and unusable because of not being competitive anymore. Bitcoin as a currency will profit from this and will emerge as a currency. But to tell that will crash gold seems something futuristic for me.

True but never underestimate the power of gold. Gold is something that's everywhere and iconic for wealth in almost every culture in the world. Its network effect is probably the greatest of all time, even if Bitcoin is superior in basically every single feature.

Gold (and Silver) are in the Periodic Table. They are eternal. If there is a rocky and oxygenated planet our space agencies might discover peopled with travelers who can travel from there to here to visit, they will know Gold when they see it-

In Charlemagne's empire, all of Europe was run on silver pennies. At the same time, all of Central America, those great pre-Columbian civilizations, were running on Gold. These metals will never not be recognized as money-

That said, it is not out of the bounds of possibility that in the next 20 years, a generational monetary disconnect could brew up where de-leveraging aging Baby Boomers sell their metals and still-acquiring Millenials choose to stack Bitcoin over Gold/Silver as their rainy day insurance of choice. Stranger things have happened. But even were that to happen, it would, inexorably, be temporary, and once the Masters of the Bitcoin Universe all play their cards, and a "new normal" market valuation for it stabilizes even as everyone in the world is buying and spending it, then Bitcoin and Gold will finally rapproche and find their relative value to the other. And don't be surprised if thereafter 1 oz. Gold is always the higher priced unit of exchange over 1 BTC-

Yes Gold is one of the most powerful investment product over the  years and it is very popular across the globe, Bitcoin crashing Gold, I don't think that it is possible as people have more faith in Gold and would surely invest in Gold rather then investing in bitcoins.

There is enough space for Bitcoin and gold to co-exist in this planet.
It is fiat which is going to have a problem. :)

Bitcoin can and will crash the relative value of gold. Diamonds will not be effected.

The only reason I agree is because the price of gold is 95% based on it's monetary value as a store of value. Only 5% of it's price is based on it's intrinsic value as an industrial metal used for electronics and jewelry. People will transfer their wealth into whatever they perceive to be the best monetary store of value, and that being the case, bitcoin is currently better at being a money on every single aspect than gold is. It is therefore quite possible that the wealth that is currently stored in gold based it's monetary value may be transferred to bitcoin, and gold will be left with it's 5% intrinsic value as an industrial metal and shiny object used as jewelry.

As I heard in an interview, "gold is just shiny bitcoin".  :)

Well in theory, if the asteroid called 433 Eros investigated by NASA and found to possibly contain more gold than ever extracted on Earth, could be broken up in smaller pieces and brought to earth, it could be

possible to extract more than  $3,000,000,000,000 worth of gold. This could turn out to be very expensive, but if it was possible, the price of gold could collapse.   

Once private companies like Virgin and Ellon Musk get the hang of space flight, they could invest in cheaper methods to do space exploration and mining and this might happen way faster than we think.

So if all these impossible things happen and the gold price fall through it's ass... Bitcoin might be seen as a better store of value. {We know only 21 000 000 coins would ever exist}  ;) 

Complete bollocks -

https://i.imgur.com/2zvFahE.png

There is place for everything in this our world. For the gold, for the bitcoin and even for the fiat money. the problem to be understand is that everyone of those three are complementary and not substitute of each other. Gold cannot do the things which do bitcoin and fiat money. Bitcoin cannot replace fiat money because have not physique form an until now are not invented yet the tools that can made the using of bitcoin like the fiat money. And at the end the fiat money cannot replace gold as a reserve asset because of it s inflation in time.

I will go further. Why one must replace the other when all can live together. Everyone in his space and everyone in his duty. It is talked to much about the lack of fees for the bitcoin and for its existence without the banks but an economy cannot exist without the banks. I think that bitcoin will be merged with the banks. Its technology will make possible that banks will be evolved and everything will be better end better. On the other hand as it was with every new technology which has improved the everyday living of everyone of us.

There is space for both, but is there enough room for growth? You cannot have a commodity with no growth, it will simply grow smaller and die. One commodity must loose market share for the other to grow.
The Bitcoin supporters wants more people to invest in Bitcoin, for their investment to show a profit, and the same goes for the people who invest in gold.

For Bitcoin to crush gold, something must happen to the gold market or people invested in other commodities must trust Bitcoin more than gold. Will that happen? Nope <People trusted gold for many centuries as a safe haven>

i think you're wrong gold is already crashing without the need of bitcoin to crash it, when bitcoin will be fully adopted i'm sure that people will have more faith in it, the same as gold, and gold will be forgotten if not for its intrinsic value


so gold is not even a good store of value, because in theory, based on this revelation there can be infinite gold in the universe, maybe far away in the universe, scientists could discover a better element than gold that can be used more in the industry, one never know

I think that would be impossible. Assuming that gold is scarce and has an immense utility, its own intrinsic value dictates that it would be always more valuable than Bitcoin.

The utility aspect is a pretty minuscule part of its value. The overwhelming majority is all value parking and speculation.

Gold is only scarce to a planet-bound civilization. We are no longer planet-bound, and gold is downright abundant in our solar system. Gold was an excellent investment in 1915, but a terrible investment to be making in 2015.

Until today i still say it's not possible. But maybe in 10years or 20years later it'll become possible. Gold price has crashed and gone down continously since one month ago and bitcoin price go higher. But Gold still win in popularity.

Probably. But it's need time. Hope we can see this happened some day.
                                                                                         

No, at least the pumps in gold prices remain there for a long time.
But you cannot say the same for Bitcoin.

The price of gold has its up and down. Only a few years ago the price of gold was at record levels. Amount never seen before. So the down price of today's days is normal cycle of the price of one good that has his cycle of price. Gold will never decline. There are hundred of years that serve as a etalon.

If anyone thinks we are about to take off and start mining asteroids any time in the near future you need a reality check.

All the gold ever mined could still fit inside an average sized 4 bedroom house, all $8.2 trillion of it now that is rare!

But I don't think that bitcoin can ever crash gold even in the future, the fluctuation in gold price is a part and parcel, this is since the inception of gold, so even at present if gold prices are going down, it would go much higher in the future.

The thing is, gold is being rated and priced according to it's rarity and it's proven not to be the case. They find new gold deposits on earth too, and the mining operations are getting better at extracting it. It has also been found on asteroids, with the possibility for it to be mined in the future.

I love gold, but it's impact on earth is devastating based on the damage that is done to extract it. The most damage is done, in areas that are very remote and poorly regulated. Lots of trees and plants are removed to excavate and animals are killed and water are polluted.

How many people have died in mining accidents? <shaft collapse / lung problems / mud slides / crime>
The cost of that average sized 4 bedroom house full of gold was huge. 

yup he is totally wrong.
As Bitcoin is a digital currency and not physical just like gold.
But if you like shiny things than you can buy physical Bitcoin (that much simple).
But as Bitcoin is just a child against gold which is from ages.

What people seem to forget, that gold is used in many of the things we use today.
No not jewellery.. but it's also used in smartphones etc.

Due to it's industrial usage and history, if you look at it with a macro view, you will see the current downtrend in gold is no big deal.

IMHO it will always stay a valuable good and hopefully it will co-exist with Bitcoins.

My 2 cents

I believe in technology ( bitcoin & other crypto currencies) more than gold .
Gold is good but in real its very hard to buy things with it, special small ones and it can be counterfeited and its still have weigh which makes it hard to move & store .
But bitcoin & other crypto currencies your wealth can be stored in a txt file / a piece of paper or even in your mind .

actaully gold is not so used in industrial so much as many think, you have diamond and copper that have a much heavy use

gold has a better value simply because it is harder to get now, the mining farm are limited and are all controlled, somehow centralized...

if bitcoin becomes big enough it can surely crash gold by a value point of view, this if we compare one ounce to 1 btc

Well we can have influence on its price, and put a down pressure on its price, but we will not extinct gold. I don't even dream this big. Gold has existed for 2,000 years and will exist another 2,000.

What we need to make sure from now is that Bitcoin exists out there with gold as well in 2,000 years. :)

I disagree:


Uses of Gold in Electronics

The most important industrial use of gold is in the manufacture of electronics. Solid state electronic devices use very low voltages and currents which are easily interrupted by corrosion or tarnish at the contact points. Gold is the highly efficient conductor that can carry these tiny currents and remain free of corrosion. Electronic components made with gold are highly reliable. Gold is used in connectors, switch and relay contacts, soldered joints, connecting wires and connection strips.

A small amount of gold is used in almost every sophisticated electronic device. This includes: cell phones, calculators, personal digital assistants, global positioning system units and other small electronic devices. Most large electronic appliances such as television sets also contain gold.

One challenge with the use of gold in very small quantities in very small devices is loss of the metal from society. Nearly one billion cell phones are produced each year and most of them contain about fifty cents worth of gold. Their average lifetime is under two years and very few are currently recycled. Although the amount of gold is small in each device, their enormous numbers translate into a lot of unrecycled gold.


Use of Gold in Computers

Gold is used in many places in the standard desktop or laptop computer. The rapid and accurate transmission of digital information through the computer and from one component to another requires an efficient and reliable conductor. Gold meets these requirements better than any other metal. The importance of high quality and reliable performance justifies the high cost.

Edge connectors used to mount microprocessor and memory chips onto the motherboard and the plug-and-socket connectors used to attach cables all contain gold. The gold in these components is generally electroplated onto other metals and alloyed with small amounts of nickel or cobalt to increase durability.


Use of Gold in Dentistry

How would iron work as a dental filling? Not very well... your dentist would need blacksmithing tools, your smile would be rusty a few days after a filling and you would need to get used to the taste of iron. Even at much higher expense, gold is used in dentistry because of its superior performance and aesthetic appeal. Gold alloys are used for fillings, crowns, bridges and orthodontic appliances. Gold is used in dentistry because it is chemically inert, nonallergenic and easy for the dentist to work.

Gold is known to have been used in dentistry as early as 700 B.C. Etruscan "dentists" used gold wire to fasten replacement teeth into the mouths of their patients. Gold was probably used to fill cavities in ancient times, however there is no documentation or archaeological evidence for this use of gold until a little over 1000 years ago.

Gold was much more generously used in dentistry up until the late 1970's. The sharp run-up of gold prices at that time motivated the development of substitute materials. However, the amount of gold used in dentistry is starting to rise again. Some motivation for this comes from concerns that less inert metals might have an adverse effect on long-term health.


Medical Uses of Gold

Gold is used as a drug to treat a small number of medical conditions. Injections of weak solutions of sodium aurothiomalate or aurothioglucose are sometimes used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Particles of a radioactive gold isotope are implanted in tissues to serve as a radiation source in the treatment of certain cancers.

Small amounts of gold are used to remedy a condition known as Lagophthalmos, which is an inability of a person to close their eyes completely. This condition is treated by implanting small amounts of gold in the upper eyelid. The implanted gold "weights" the eyelid and the force of gravity helps the eyelid close fully.

Radioactive gold is used in diagnosis. It is injected in a colloidal solution that can be tracked as a beta emitter as it passes through the body. Many surgical instruments, electronic equipment and life-support devices are made using small amounts of gold. Gold is nonreactive in the instruments and is highly reliable in the electronic equipment and life-support devices.


Uses of Gold in Aerospace

If you are going to spend billions of dollars on a vehicle that when launched will travel on a voyage where the possibility of lubrication, maintenance and repair is absolutely zero, then building it with extremely dependable materials is essential. This is exactly why gold is used in hundreds of ways in every space vehicle that NASA launches.

Gold is used in circuitry because it is a dependable conductor and connector. In addition, many parts of every space vehicle are fitted with gold-coated polyester film. This film reflects infrared radiation and helps stabilize the temperature of the spacecraft. Without this coating, dark colored parts of the spacecraft would absorb significant amounts of heat

Gold is also used as a lubricant between mechanical parts. In the vacuum of space, organic lubricants would volatilize and they would be broken down by the intense radiation beyond Earth's atmosphere. Gold has a very low shear strength and thin films of gold between critical moving parts serves as a lubricant - the gold molecules slip past one another under the forces of friction and that provides a lubricant action.


Uses of Gold Awards & Status Symbols

What metal is used to make the crown worn by a king? Gold! This metal is selected for use because gold it is THE metal of highest esteem. It would make no sense to make a king's crown out of steel - even though steel is the strongest metal. Gold is chosen for use in a king's crown because it is the metal associated with highest esteem and status.

Gold is associated with many positive qualities. Purity is another quality associated with gold. For this reason, gold is the metal of choice for religious objects. Crosses, communion ware and other religious symbols are almost always made with gold for this reason.

Gold is also used as the first place winner's medal or trophy in almost any type of contest. First place winners at the Olympic Games are given gold medals. The Academy Awards Oscars are gold awards. Music's Grammy Awards are made of gold. All of these important achievements are honored with awards made of gold.


Uses of Gold in Glassmaking

Gold has many uses in the production of glass. The most basic use in glassmaking is that of a pigment. A small amount of gold suspended in the glass when it is annealed produces a rich ruby color.

Gold is also used when making specialty glass for climate controlled buildings and cases. A small amount of gold dispersed within the glass or coated onto the glass surface will reflect solar radiation outward, helping the buildings stay cool in the summer, and reflect internal heat inward, helping them stay warm in winter.

The visor on the helmet of an astronaut's space suit is coated with a very thin film of gold. This thin film reflects much of the very intense solar radiation of space, protecting the astronaut's eyes and skin.


Gold Gilding and Gold Leaf

Gold has the highest malleability of any metal. This enables gold to be beaten into sheets that are only a few millionths of an inch thick. These thin sheets, known as "gold leaf" can be applied over the irregular surfaces of picture frames, molding or furniture.

Gold leaf is also used on the external and internal surfaces of buildings. This provides a durable and corrosion-resistant covering. One of the most eye-catching uses of gold leaf is on the domes of religious buildings and other important structures. The cost of this "roofing material" is very high per square foot; however, the cost of the gold is only a few percent of the total project cost. Most of the cost goes to the labor of highly skilled artisans who apply the gold leaf.


Future Uses of Gold

Gold is too expensive to use by chance. Instead it is used deliberately and only when less expensive substitutes can not be identified. As a result, once a use is found for gold it is rarely abandoned for another metal. This means that the number of uses for gold have been increasing over time.

Most of the ways that gold is used today have been developed only during the last two or three decades. This trend will likely continue. As our society requires more sophisticated and reliable materials our uses for gold will increase. This combination of growing demand, few substitutes and limited supply will cause the value and importance of gold to increase steadily over time. It is truly a metal of the future.


TL;DR

Gold is used in many different fields, in addition to the fact it's hard to get (mining etc.) there are many industrial uses.
Thus my stance remains, BTC may > GOLD in the future, but it wont crash it :)

No.
People needs to physically hold their valuable things. I don't think someone will hold a flash drive and hey look it contains millions of dollars it's more valuable than your 1kg gold etc.

I think, it would be hard to happen.
First, the earth have a lot of Gold and also so many many Gold that undiscovered yet.
Second, Gold is looks better then Bitcoin (which is a digital not physical thing). :D
It just my opinion

Not only the economy is dependent on bank but the technological development also. A world without banks cant evolve the way we have until now. Dont know how long we can live in a bitcoin world of faucets, dice and porn.

Bitcoin will never take the place of gold.

I think no because gold have physically and bitcoin not have. I see bitcoin is most currency in the future, will see where bitcoin will go as a most currency or bitcoin die

No, I don't think so.

Yes Bitcoin can never crash gold  not in the coming years for sure, The market acceptance of Gold is more then Bitcoins, and market cap is also huge of Gold. Comparatively Bitcoin has a least market cap and many doesn't find it trustworthy. Gold is traditional and people have more faith in Gold as compared to Bitcoins and they hesitate in investing in crypto currency.

The older generation would definitely invest in Gold as they are not aware of bitcoins. And there are many people who have hardly used computers in their lives, So getting into a digital currency would be much more difficult for them.

Agree. No one can imagine that someone have with himself at home for sure one functional computer (or something that substitute it in fewer measures) to store there its valued things. If computer crashes everything goes in trash. It is credible such thing as much as the gold which can be stored in secured vaults in banks?

You do not need a computer to do that.. if you have a smart phone, you have Bitcoin. If your community have access to one computer, all of them have access to Bitcoin. How do you think things like Mpesa thrive in Africa?
If you use paper wallets, you would not need any electronic devices for a long time.

A computer crash should not be the end of the world for Bitcoin users. If it is, you are not using cold storage and paper wallets.

If we are realistic, only a small percentage of people in the world understand or trust Bitcoin now, after what happened with MtGox and Silkroad.

I think Gold is not the opponent of BTC since i think gold is like oil. the price goes up and down.
I think that the main opponent of BTC is the fiat money

no. bitcoin is bitcoin and gold is gold.
can to replace one each other. they have a favorite in their place. bitcoin have a favorite and gold have a favorite.
they have a fans like that. and gold can we use to jewelry

I do not think that Bitcoin can crash gold.

Bitcoin is like any other type of money. It has no value in its own, only that many people agree in giving it value.

Gold, however, is agreed to have a value, but in addition, its useful. It is scarce, ductile, used as a conductor, and beautiful to be worked and made into jewels.

Bitcoin cannot trump gold in the same way it cannot trump iron, copper or other useful material. But in fact, gold has even more uses.

i say No.
gold is legendary jewerly from oldest...
and have like a prefential position in everyone heart.
this is like symbol of luxury and rich when we can to see live...

And that's a huuuge difference between Gold and BTC that should keep it popular as a store of value well into the future.

• There's also no psychological significance to carrying around BTC in whatever tangible form (paper wallet) that says to the average person "this is valuable and will save my ass in desperate times."

• Let's say a natural disaster hits a part of the country. Gold is recoverable even amid the rubble, BTC on hard drives / paper wallets much less so, which would only further reinforce psychologically the value of gold in times of disaster.

• Also, in times of mass hysteria / panic in the streets, can you really be certain that the BTC network will be up? I will say that Jim Ryckards new book did mention that you shouldn't be holding "paper gold" as that too will likely be worthless when-the-sh*t-hits-the-fan.

I SHOULD SAY nO.
gold is a luxury and very having prestise and high value,
the price is very expensive. and everyone love it..

I think it will in the near future, who knows?

If Bitcoin is compared to Gold, then maybe Bitcoin could crash Gold if it becomes very valuable. Lets say $1500 or more. Just my opinion. Please correct me if I'm wrong  :D

There are nearly 6 billion ounces of gold as opposed to 15 or so million bitcoins. That's around 400 ounces per coin. The price would have to be in the several hundred thousand range to match gold's market cap.

I don't think this is going to be happen because Gold has his own worth and bitcoin can give some good competition  in near future in trading

Yes, bitcoin can never crash gold, as it has been proved to be the best investment product since past, and it will be the best in the coming future too, and the reason is there are many people who are not aware about the bitcoins so they would not prefer to invest in it.

Yes, not more than one million people do know about Bitcoins or any other crypto currency.
But when we see the statistics of gold then everyone knows about it and even a child can also tell us that what is gold.

But how many people do you know who actually own any gold? Out of everyone in my life I only know of one.

Bitcoin is never going to replace gold. It is a good alternative, but it is not intrinsically the same. Both have their benefits.

Gold will never lose it's value. That's the beauty of it, comparing it to something like Bitcoin. The two coincide nicely actually from an investment standpoint. To answer your question though, Bitcoin won't crash gold. Will one "outshine" the other? Probably. Too early to tell now.

Bitcoins flaw is that it relies too heavily on technology. And you all are putting way too much faith into this technology. One catastrophic event can change everything. And there's repeated evidence of this throughout human history. Look at all the advanced civilizations which have been wiped clean from earths surface. Yes, but gold still remains.

Gold and Bitcoin are different asset classes. Gold is a historical, traditional way of storing a value. Blockchain technology is a future. What's in common is that, if we set aside certain manipulation attempts, they can't be controlled by governments.
Long term, both of them are going to survive, which we can't say for certain about fiat currencies.

That is right, bitcoin is a new to the world yet, and gold is ruling the world since its inception, Bitcoin can never replace gold, but the only advantage with bitcoin is that you can carry any amount of bitcoin in your digital wallet, even if you are travelling across the countries, whereas gold is something that can catch an eye of customs if you are holding in a bulk.

Now a days we can also store gold digitally.
Then also customs can not get to know that how much gold we have with us.

But getting Bitcoin cashed out is a big deal because not much merchants accept bitcoins and which does have also trading fees.

But I get my bitcoins cashed out very easily and I don't feel that traders do have that high trading fees, I feel it very easy and best way to convert my bitcoins into fiat currency, I send them trade request and they transfer money to my bank account within minutes, So if you are not finding merchants I would suggest you to visit localbitcoins website.

Your examples were caused by too heavily relying on people.
Reliance on tech is a way safer option. Isn't that obvious?

Another advantage of tech is, if you find bugs, they can be fixed. Not like people or even govts.

yes, dud.
gold is unlimited all over the universe, divided up to a particle.
bitcoin could only be divided as low as 1 out of 100 million and very limited as 21 million.

All 3 of them are going to survive in future, but the important thing is which would be more valuable in future, As bitcoin can never replace fiat that is for sure, and comparing bitcoin and gold is something comparing between mom and dad, and that is not possible. So as investment products both have great future and give us some best returns on our investments.

I think your completely wrong because according to some study in another 20 to 30 years, the world may run out of minable gold. Mining output has been fairly flat for these years and also new discoveries of gold mines have been very less in these days. So do not compare gold with bitcoins. If you have power then you can start mining bitcoins but gold is something completely natural so once finish it is gone for forever.

Yes gold will be finished on earth, some day.

Scientists have found many precious metals on asteroids and are working on methods to extract those metals from asteroids or capture them and bring them to earth.

Gold has been trusted over centuries and is a well-known and accepted investment worldwide. Bitcoin is still unknown to many,even in US,Europe and Asia never mind a trust factor.

First quantum computers are already functional - in the future all encryption will become useless killing bitcoin.

I would put money on scenario B happening before scenario A

I do not think so, the price of gold is also always increasing, while bitcoin prices always go up and down

You obviously have no concept of market cap, Bitcoin is a small drop in the ocean of total gold market cap.

Also if bitcoin is causing the price of gold to drop then surely this huge influx of new money would be causing the price of bitcoin to go parabolic instead of downwards.

There is only one reason why the price of gold is going down at the moment and that is the paper games being played to suppress the price of gold to enable china to accumulate a few more tonnes at a lower price.

We will see a significant increase in gold price in the not too distant future!

This chart really highlights your point of how bitcoin is currently causing the price of gold to crash  ::)
http://bitcoinvsgold.com/images/charts/bitcoin_gold_marketcap.png

Bitcoin price hasn't been 'going downwards' for quite a few months now. And it does indeed appear to be rising on a parabolic curve.

I think your idea of parabolic growth is different to everyone elses -

https://i.imgur.com/Nb1d4lx.png

I highly doubt bitcoin will ever be able to replace gold.

Gold has been in use for centuries already whereas bitcoin is still in its infancy. Also consider the fact that most governments will roll out their own digital currencies (like Ecuador) which will have an impact on the mass adoption of bitcoin. People will flock to these alternative digital currencies as they will be backed by their governments and local banks.

When these digital currencies fail (and they will), people will flock to precious metals and its only at this time when we will start to see true mass adoption of bitcoin.

Yes of course, if quantum computers were to put on sha-256 algorithm and then started mining bitcoins then they would mine the whole Bitcoin network because they are much more powerful and very much power efficient.

Lol in what planet does gold "always increase"? lets look at the all time graph

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/Gold_Spot_Price_per_Gram_from_Jan_1971_to_Jan_2012.svg/2000px-Gold_Spot_Price_per_Gram_from_Jan_1971_to_Jan_2012.svg.png

There you have it.

maybe Bitcoin Crash Gold..because user bicoin is so many people right now

please refer to post #109

If Bitcoin becomes the store of value for the majority of the under banked and unbanked, it could replace gold as the preferred medium for storing wealth.

For a bitcoin future, bitcoin is easier to store than gold

You can cherry-pick periods to make it look how you want, but I think 'everyone' reasonable would agree bitcoin price has bottmed out and started climbing again. That's a parabola.

You both need to read up before making such pronouncements.

1) quantum computers can only speed up a rather narrow range of additional problems. ALL forms of cryptography (even as currently used) are not vulnerable.
2) hashes are generally believed to NOT be very vulnerable to quantum computing

That is a big if. There is a reason why there is under-banking prevalent in many parts of the world. It is probably because of low ticket size (not worth the bank's time) or tough regulations (too much effort for the ticket size). So these people don't exactly have a lot of wealth to store.

i have never tried buying gold but i dont see how bitcoin can crash gold market on its own .. gold has been around in market from a long before bitcoin so bitcoin is not the only factor playing in its price

The same for me. Bitcoin and gold are two very different entities that "play" everyone its part in this world. Have no points of contact except maybe that both can be assets of investments but for bitcoin this is not sure but only hypothetical while for gold is sure hundred per cent. So I don't see how bitcoin can crash gold. Even one day will be worth thousand of dollars. Gold will have always his place in the world economy and as a reserve in Central Banks.

I don't think that Bitcoin will ever crash Gold. Bitcoin is still in its initial stage, many countries are not willing to regulate ,it seems that they will never do it in the future as well. On other people trust gold and they are looking it as traditional way to invest your money. There is a big gap between  Bitcoin and people which needs to be fill by awareness and knowledge sharing.

bitcoin and gold are seperate types of "currency", although they have a bit of effect on each other.One doesn't make the other obsolete

Bitcoin could probably crash gold if it meets the following criterias: mainstream adoption, and an increase in price. Could you imagine Bitcoin being worth as near as Gold or even valuable than Gold? Only time will tell if this is going to happen. Just my opinion.  ::)

A bitcoin is already worth more than a gram of gold. You need to be more careful with defining your units in any comparison.

may be someday it will happen,gold crash on many countr,just because crisiss in greece.
but i dont think it will happen on my country  :D

If bitcoin will crash the gold this will happen everywhere and not on one single or small group of countries. I don't believe this but if it will be, it will be everywhere.

I need to agree. Gold 2.0 will out traditional gold in value. because bitcoin has the feature of easily move-able around the world with out worry of any border. Whereas Gold really lags in this.