Bitcoin Forum

There is always a comparison among Bitcoin and Gold investment in the market but we are ignoring the fact that gold is centralized assest but Bitcoin is decentalized source of investment backed up by Secure network of miners always.This notice was issued by the US government in 1933 or 88 years back.

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Control

The government has full control over your gold investment and any time they can ask you to deposit it with them or even put a limit to gold holdings with individuals which is another concern but still you can't speak being residents of democratic countries.But Bitcoin provides your freedom to enjoy your funds according to your own wish without any centeral authorities intervention because of its decentralized nature and moreover it's network is always secured by the miners.

Growth chart

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It is clear from the chart that Bitcoin has outshine the gold prices in the recent years and touched ATH of $60k in only period of 12 years whereas gold has been in the market from past hundred of years as signs of gold can been seen in earlier dynasty caves.So Bitcoin has outperformed gold in just 12 years.

Supply

The Bitcoin supply is limited to 21 million coins which will be mined until 2140 as approximately 4320 blocks are mined every month and reward for each block is 6.25 btc/block which will be halfed after halving.So this pattern is fixed for Bitcoin.Gold supply is also limited until all the natural resources have been exhausted from which gold is mined but we can't say exactly how much time it will take to reach at that level where mines capacity to further gold has been used.

https://i.ibb.co/2cQ308J/Screenshot-20210323-190130-01.jpg (https://ibb.co/44GRwsk)

Payments

You can use Bitcoin as both investment assest and to make payments to other people by making transactions with very nominal fees over the blockchain.With increase in btc demand and prices you can have profits in your pocket whereas you can make payments to big giants who are now accepting btc as payment.But on the other side you can only hold gold as investment with you which will give less returns over long periods and you can sell it in the market if you wish to do so but you cannot buy stuff of your choice with gold as there is no payment options online or in physical to exchange gold for your items.

Increase of Bitcoiners

So far Bitcoin has performed very well and given tough competition to the other financial assest but now the number of Bitcoin users have also been increasing rapidly and more investors are putting money into Bitcoin instead of Gold and other bonds because of higer returns and its acceptance by major organisations.


https://i.ibb.co/tZ8d7f5/Screenshot-20210323-191130-01.jpg (https://ibb.co/bHzfShn)

So why are we making such comparisons?We need to understand the importance of Bitcoin in regards to other financial assest as Bitcoin is only decentralised currency that can provide you freedom from these traditional monetary system and make you king of your own money.Invest in your future.

We compared gold with Bitcoin many times here but it doesn't hurt to repeat it again because repetition is the mother of all learning.
They can even take gold from us but they can never take away out bitcoin if they don't have private key or backup phrase.

And here is one of Satoshi Nakamoto forum posts comparing Gold with Bitcoin, and his conclusion that not having Bitcoin would be the net waste.

Gold is definitely a controlled asset unlike bitcoin. So the gold market is very different in all aspects from bitcoin. Government can pass law to confiscate gold from you in case of extreme emergency while they can't touch your bitcoin unless they know your private key. So these two market are not comparable. Even if you compare, it will not be an apple-to-apple comparison.

So I personally think bitcoin must not be classified as a digital gold. It's a new class of currency which is not controlled by a regulatory body, rather it is controlled by a global network of miners. It's not the case of gold which is completely controlled by the governments.

Bitcoin is much more portable.  If the people of Venezuela, North Korea, Russia, Europe, Cuba, Africa, Central America, South America, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore or Biden/Warren/AOC's USA (etc) needed to flee authoritarianism (socialism, fascism, communism etc), crossing a border with gold would be much more difficult than with bitcoin.

The number of people who are willing to take from one in order to give to another in order to buy their votes is increasing.  Look at the US Democrat party willing to sacrifice one group to satisfy another.  To them, equality under the law is just something to say, not really believe.  Of course, they are the party of Southern slavery, so what do you expect.  Their philosophy hasn't changed, just the language used to hide their true motives.

Gold is also decentralized, why say otherwise?

Gold is a safe heaven for people as they believe it is one of safest heaven in history. Any changes, unstability of politics, society, financial conditions will help demand on gold increases. That in turn cause price of gold bar increases.

Bitcoin, sometimes has coincidence with gold movements on the market but it is different. Bitcoin will be a mean for storage but now it is more likely a speculative asset. With its volatility and deflation schedule, people have more belief that the speculative digital currency will rise.

You can not mine more than 21 million bitcoins, never but people and future more advanced technologies can increase the total supply for gold. New gold resources can from external planets or deeper layers in the Earth.

I wonder what part of gold you are referring to as "government asset" and what you mean by that. I think It's better to see it as National asset, with government regulating it's usage and mining. So, Gold owned by government is owned by the people actually.
I think it's wrong though for government to confiscate people's assets and turn them into public assets without any justifiable reason.  I wonder if that's what happened with Gold in US 88years ago? Sounds like what I read/watched happened in ancient nations with lawless tyrants

Thanks for the summation mate and brings up this informative thread, IMHO, I believe that Gold has become a tool for manipulation of wealth to control any economy or possibly a nation that's why there is no freedom in it while Bitcoin is a decentralized digital asset own by people and it cannot be controlled by anyone so for me Bitcoin and Gold is not comparable but only serves in their respective functions and purposes which is a centralized and decentralized form of assets.

With both Bitcoin and gold you depend on some other people. "They" control the supply of gold but "they" also control mining. It's not like you or me can suddenly spend a million dollars on a bitcoin farm if the people who are mining now decide they don't want to do it anymore.

Bitcoin is not directly controlled by anyone but you as a holder also depend on other people to mine it, run nodes, run exchanges.

I am surprised after a few comments I am going to be the first one to disagree with what OP says because he bases his reasoning in a false analogy:


That comparison is wrong. Both are decentralized.


That's again wrong. Gold is as decentralized as Bitcoin. The value of Gold doesn't come from a Central Bank, unlike in the case of the value of USD, which comes from the FED and the US government. Gold is valuable because people believe it's valuable, the same as Bitcoin, they don't need a Central Bank or a Government saying that they are valuable.

Other than that, the government can confiscate your Bitcoin just like they can confiscate your Gold if they make an executive order for Bitcoin like they did in 1933. Is it a little harder to confiscate it? Yes, but it is similar. If such an order were passed, all Bitcoin from centralized exchanges would be confiscated by the government, and in the case of people who keep Bitcoins in hard wallets it would be more difficult but just as it was difficult to confiscate gold from someone who had a little bit of it hidden at home.


This is also false. Gold is both an investment asset and you can use it to make payments. It's not so usual nowadays, but you can, and it has been widely used to make payments throughout History.



Why are you?



Bitcoin nowadays is not a currency and it's not the only decentralized asset, as I have shown.

I'm going to disagree with OP too. The things that happened with gold can happen with Bitcoin too, just to a smaller extent. The government can control centralized exchanges, where 99% of Bitcoin volume happens, so they could control this market if they wanted to. Trading Bitcoin on a black market would be a huge pain in the ass, because of the risks of scams and other attacks, and other digital payment methods are centralized and regulated, so it would be hard to buy and sell large amounts of coins.

It's already hard to buy things with Bitcoin, because few places accept it, if government banned Bitcoin, Bitcoin would be a very hard to use black market store of value.

I agree with this, gold may not be digital but it is as decentralized as Bitcoin, as neither its supply or price is controlled by government agencies. The government can only use agencies to confiscate gold.
If a Bitcoin holder uses the network wrongly, they can also do the same to Bitcoin using centralized exchanges to eliminate the quality of decentralization.

gold on its own is not centralized though. it is a metal that you can hold on your own and trade p2p in a very decentralized way. the problem is that it is not easy to do because you can't for example carry 50kg gold with yourself in your pocket to sell so people end up choosing the centralized way of doing it which is through IOUs instead using the centralized places.

To be honest, nothing would stop the government from issuing another executive order exactly like the one from OP but for Bitcoin instead of gold. In fact, it might be easier to find out who is using Bitcoin and who isn't rather than finding out who owns gold. One of them is on the unforgivable internet, the other is offline.

Gold is decentralized but as mentioned above, weight is an issue. You have to carry a specific, identifiable material in order to move around your wealth. Bitcoin lets you even print your seed on a t-shirt label and move to another country without suspecting a single thing. They are comparable and not at the same time, both having advantages and disadvantages vs the other simultaneously as well..

So when gold and bitcoin are juxtaposed, we can only contribute by owning bitcoin. We may not be able to have a large amount and weight of gold throughout our lives in our living rooms and rooms. it will obviously invite thieves to brutally enter ... as for bitcoin, who will know other than ourselves if it is not published to the outside world even if we have a large amount of bitcoins, as long as we store passwords and seeds of 12 words in a safe place without being touched by the internet .
that's one of the simpler things that made us interested in bitcoin rather than gold. As for the advantages and disadvantages of gold and bitcoin, everyone already knows, so I don't need to register it here.

One thing is for sure, bitcoin is friendly to us without a third party, whereas gold would be very complicated if the government knew we had a pile of gold in the safe.

This is why you don't give out personal information as much as possible if it can be avoided. Though with the current state of things, it's true that it'll not be hard for the government to locate who has which and how much, given that exchanges are now being heavily regulated day by day. But for those who are avoiding exchanges like the plague and are sticking to P2P and decentralized exchanges, they would be the ones who will be safe when that time comes.

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In my own experience, gold is extremely complicated when you can't carry the weight (not literally). You'll have a lot of logistics issue and the constant threat of being robbed by armed men is there. Whereas in bitcoin, if you keep a low enough profile and not brag to everyone else in the world that you have some BTC with you, you'll be good, and you can even evade governments trying to confiscate your assets since you don't have to worry about carrying physical bullions with you.

Gold and Bitcoin both have advantages and disadvantages of their own. In the end, it is left for the people's choice. There is a high volatility for Bitcoin price but the situation is not the same for gold. When it comes to a long-term investment, I'd prefer Bitcoin instead of gold. Because we have seen many times how much Bitcoin multiplied its price in a few years. Bitcoin seems much more profitable than gold to me.

In a way, the reason that golds are centralized is because of the convenience that centralization provides which is good in my opinion considering it is physical item which means that someone can physically intercept and steal the gold unlike bitcoin where the only reason for losing it is when the person that owns it is a stupid one. The control of government over your gold is a good thing because it means that it is insured and you will not lose your money when something from their side is wrong.

when they confiscate gold during that time, everyone has no option, you'd be breaking the law if you don't cooperate, it's like anarchy. but this is because they experience a crisis during that time. It's the nature of government, any government will want to have control over its people. its how society works and i think the CBDC which they are developing right now also has this purpose.

because bitcoin can be traced and can be confiscated as well. some investors are resorting to gold which they thought that can't be traced and proven to have track record.

The government might ask you to deposit your gold in a bank,but will you do it?
I would prefer to bury my gold somewhere and don't give anything to the government.I would pay my taxes in fiat money,but no government in the world will touch my gold. ;D If some government clerks ask me "Where is the gold?" a would say that I lost the gold or somebody stole it from me.Problem solved. ;D
Gold isn't centralized.Gold certificates are centralized,because you have a piece of paper,which is backed by a promise,instead of actual gold.

The only problem is, even if we know Bitcoin has a limited supply and somehow manage to reach 1 million USD each. Do you think it will be the same as before after the 1 million bitcoin that Satoshi mined will be released in an instant? If ever it will stand a chance, it would probably have a hard time bringing it's glory again or for worst it won't. That's the only thing that bugs me. Unlike gold or silver, they are continuously needed, for hardware purposes and alike, name it. So I am suggesting we diversify the investment, bitcoin at the same time gold.

It's not about bringing glory though my friend. It's just about how the market values Bitcoin not just as a speculative asset but as an actual REAL asset that most importantly now for people stores and protects value. And about how secure it is, from hacks, and from market manipulation. The more people understand this and believe it, the more demand for it grows. Then it is not about price anymore especially when US dollar is getting weaker and weaker.

I am sure this is most likely what Satoshi had in mind when he created bitcoin. He must have realized that we really don't have any control over our financial assets whether cash in bank or gold. He must have thought that no matter how rich you are in gold or money, it can all be confiscated by the government because they can control it.
This is most probably the greatest advantage of bitcoin over gold. Bitcoin was created by Satoshi to take financial control away from the government and give it back to the populace.
I have total control over the bitcoins in my wallet and I can do with them as I please. It is important to note that there is practically no offense I can make against the law that can make my bitcoin confiscated.

It is a really big advantage for Bitcoin being decentralized compared to gold I think. When you make an observation, you could easily understand that many people started preferring Bitcoin rather than gold for investing in as they want to have the full control. And in my opinion, it is really a great feeling. It is like you are the government and the bank at the same time.  ;D

NO Comparison. And who told you that Bitcoin is a source of investment? I don't think so. Technically there is no source of investment in Bitcoin. It's was created with a different goal to make decentralized peer-to-peer electronic money. If you bought one Bitcoin then it will remain as one Bitcoin forever if you do not play with it. So it wouldn't be an investment source Technically. However,  Bitcoin is created by a person or a group of developers and gold is a collection of nature. Bitcoin is a currency and gold is an asset. So there wouldn't be any comparison.

I wouldn't compare gold to bitcoin either. I did not see such a remark here that bitcoin still depends on the Internet. And the internet depends on electricity. Does gold need all this? But of course, expecting a complete shutdown of the Internet today is comparable to a global catastrophe. Thus, we all understand that the advantages of bitcoin are becoming more and more every year. Only the belief that bitcoin is completely confidential is getting smaller every year.
Recently, Edward Snowden commented on the privacy of bitcoin in a not very good way. https://u.today/edward-snowden-says-bitcoin-sucks-at-privacy?amp

I don't know whether gold is for government or not but surly bitcoin is not for governments. The reason why governments all around the world are against bitcoin is the fact that its creating a financial eco system where government has zero control. Bitcoin till date is backed by its community. And I hope it will stay that way forever.

What is the difference, if you buy digital gold on a centralized database and if you buy Bitcoin on a Blockchain? Well, someone is in control of the centralized Gold database and they can wipe entries and destroy your proof of ownership. The Blockchain is not a centralized database, but rather a combination of 1000's of full nodes that are running the Bitcoin protocol. (Nobody can simply wipe entries, without someone noticing it)

The only way to invest in Gold is to buy physical Gold and the transfer of ownership is difficult over long distances. (Also very risky) ...So why would you risk having to hoard Gold and becoming a huge target for criminals.  ::)

The government could ask for all your bitcoins too. It doesn't mean you were going to give them your coins, right?

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Although these two assets aren't comparable as gold is stable, while bitcoin is volatile, if you are able to acquire a physical piece of gold it's so safe like holding bitcoin in a hardware wallet. No one can take it from you since you store it safely and in secret.

You are right about it. It will be too risky to do such thing as you will be an open target for many kind of criminals. However, you are also under the threat of cybercriminals while having cryptocurrencies also. Let's say that you are keeping your coins in a very trustworthy exchange like Binance etc. . There is always a possibility for seeing the exchange to be hacked. We witnessed such event before (It should be KuCoin as far as I remember).

There is always a comparison between gold and bitcoin, both are good assets. Gold is the government's asset and they can control it anytime unlike bitcoin, they cannot access it and they cannot control it if they don't have the private keys of yours. If you want independent banking or you want that you are the only one who can access or the one who only controls your asset then you better prefer on choosing bitcoin instead of gold. Gold is also good, for sure in the future it can also go upon which you can give it as a gift to your future children.

Bitcoin has really proven to be better than gold is so many aspects, just imagine investing in gold for over 3years and investing in bitcoin for three years and see which will yield a bigger and better income of course it's bitcoin, gold is centralized and also the government is in control of gold which means there can even place some kind of restrictions to gold owners thereby making them not been able to be in full control of thier own assets but take a look at bitcoin which is decentralized, gives us full control of our asset. Bitcoin is much more better than gold in so Many ways 

- Discussing gold is just one way for us to gain more knowledge and understand the value of this asset and be able to invest for fun in the future, currently, bitcoin is still the more stable option, the most profitable platform belongs to bitcoin and this is the most interest of investors, gold does not dominate from a profit perspective and is too controlled by the government, investors cannot create virtual prices. So evaluating both as good is just a theory for fun, the fact that people put more of a priority on bitcoin

Indeed, despite the fact that BTC is decentralized it can be controlled but only if governments of all countries will aim to block BTC together. They can easily froze wallets on centralized exchange markets and block exchanges as well so no one will able to trade, exchange or withdraw crypto. There would remain only coins that are keeping on digital wallets with no ability to trade. Nowadays we can observe how Nigerian government uses such tactic to fight against crypto in their country.

Gold is a traditional asset, but not bitcoin. Gold mines are certainly government resources. There is no personal hand. But if Bitcoin can be purchased, then it is completely your own. Gold is also being bought and used by people. But in the world of gold, the influence of personal people is less. Bitcoin does not have to pay any compensation for what it is doing.