[2017-04-13]When It Comes to Scarcity and Anti-Counterfeiting Bitcoin Actually O

[Sunmerdy]

When It Comes to Scarcity and Anti-Counterfeiting Bitcoin Actually Outshines Gold
Some people believe the properties of precious metals like gold far exceed the fundamental attributes of Bitcoin. Over the years, many have claimed that gold is scarce and is hard to counterfeit. However, there have been cases that have proven gold is not as scarce as we think and the soft metal is often substituted with phony imitations.
Gold’s Scarcity Compared to Bitcoin

One of the most valued properties of Bitcoin is the cryptocurrency’s capped supply at 21 million units. Scarcity is believed to be a valuable trait to humans as economists believe this attribute fends off market behaviors like inflation. Most people consider precious metals like gold and silver to be a scarce commodity within our world. However, over the years it has become more apparent that gold’s scarcity may be somewhat of a falsehood.

For instance, scientists have found there are vast amounts of mineral elements in space, specifically in asteroids. Asteroid mining, which mines raw material from floating space rocks, is a legitimate venture that will likely take place in the near future. The practice will enable people to mine and transport gold, silver, iridium, palladium, and platinum back to earth. However at the moment this process is expensive and could cost billions just to get started, but the NASA mission OSIRIS-REx is just one of many projects working on this goal. One asteroid can hold hundreds of thousands of kilograms of gold, depending on size. Google’s Planetary Resources also plans to mine asteroids.
On earth, there may be even more gold than we think, for instance under the ocean floor and new mining locations are found every few years. Just the other week, on March 29, over 382 tons of gold were found in Shandong China. Reports state that the mine’s value is estimated to be over $22 billion (RMB150billion), which in itself is larger than Bitcoin’s current market capitalization. Reports reveal the mine is one of the largest gold reserves ever found in China and the potential excavation can be finished in only two years.

Fool’s Gold

When It Comes to Scarcity and Anti-Counterfeiting Bitcoin Outshines GoldIt is a known fact that Bitcoin cannot be duplicated or counterfeited. The network will not accept a forged bitcoin and will reject anyone trying to double-spend any unit in this capped supply. Gold proponents will also tell you the precious metal is also hard to counterfeit.

Just recently, in Edmonton Canada, local law enforcement officials issued a warning to the public about a potential fake gold bar scam. Various merchants in Edmonton purchased fake bars last year, that investigators reported to be “professionally packaged and authentic.”

“We tested the product for authenticity and quickly determined these gold bars were nothing more than copper bars plated in gold,” explained EPS Criminal Investigation Officer Robert Wellon.

Furthermore, last month, investigators in China revealed an ongoing investigation in which they discovered a fake gold operation stemming from the Boyuan Mining company. The knockoff gold bricks allegedly scammed investors and financial institutions out of 11 billion CNY. Moreover, the gold was used to secure mortgages and pledge loans from the People’s Bank of China and Shanxi Province Rural Credit Cooperatives. Using gold as collateral for loans and real estate deals is common in China. Suspects used 62 percent tungsten in the forged bars, but the outer shells were solid gold.

Bitcoin’s Benefits of Sound Money Exceed Gold

When It Comes to Scarcity and Anti-Counterfeiting Bitcoin Outshines GoldIt is clear that gold’s scarcity and anti-counterfeiting claims are a bit misleading. On the other hand, Bitcoin will never have more than a 21 million capped supply, and forgery is extremely hard to accomplish within the Bitcoin network. Furthermore, the number of bitcoins in existence is far scarcer than we think due to losses, thefts, and concepts like proof-of-burn.

The attributes of sound money, as far as scarcity and counterfeiting are concerned, is superior with Bitcoin in comparison to precious metals like gold. Furthermore, when it comes to sound money, Bitcoin also excels with its aspects of divisibility, portability, and durability.
https://news.bitcoin.com/scarcity-anti-counterfeiting-bitcoin-outshines-gold/

[asdin66fa]

When investors hold gold, it doesnt make them rich during a collapse (like in 2008) because they have to sell it to pay margin calls on other positions on the market or meet other financial needs in the panic quickly. So, when a major market collapses, the price of every instrument falls too due to correlation.
I think BTC may be an exception as it is much less integrated into the financial system than other instruments. Watch this space.

[d5000]

Another superficial bitcoin.com article.

To evaluate Bitcoin's scarcity, you have to go beyond the concept of the "21 million limit". You must ask: "21 million of what?"

The 21 million are not an absolute limit because there can be unlimited (pun intended) forks and alt-chains. Ironically, Bitcoin.com is just one of the actors that could be eventually responsible for a hard fork which effectively would duplicate the tokens (BTC/BTU). A social contract saying that humankind shall use only one cryptocurrency (Bitcoin) will never work.

The correct "scarcity concept" is the following: Bitcoin's 21 million units are shares in the Bitcoin ecosystem. But if the Bitcoin ecosystem doesn't grow, then the value of the shares won't grow too. And Bitcoin faces competition from hundreds or thousands of alternative projects. So if you want to make Bitcoin more valuable, you shouldn't rely on scarcity, but instead add value to the ecosystem.

OK, gold also has a pretty shady "value" concept, but its scarcity concept is a little bit simpler - there are silver and platinum, but they haven't exactly the same use case than gold. With Bitcoin and altcoins, use cases overlap almost completely (depending on the altcoin project).

[1Referee]

People shouldn't bite themselves stuck on the 21 million unit factor, because in reality it doesn't hold much value. I even remember some people saying that 21 million isn't enough and thus Bitcoin's 21 million coin cap must at least be doubled, lol.

1BTC = 1,000 mBTC
1BTC = 1,000,000 Bits
1BTC = 100,000,000 Satoshi

It's just a matter of setting your wallet to the unit nomination that you feel comfortable with. In that regard, the scarcity aspect is greatly over-exaggerated.

[veleten]

People shouldn't bite themselves stuck on the 21 million unit factor, because in reality it doesn't hold much value. I even remember some people saying that 21 million isn't enough and thus Bitcoin's 21 million coin cap must at least be doubled, lol.

1BTC = 1,000 mBTC
1BTC = 1,000,000 Bits
1BTC = 100,000,000 Satoshi

It's just a matter of setting your wallet to the unit nomination that you feel comfortable with. In that regard, the scarcity aspect is greatly over-exaggerated.

to be fair same goes for gold,remember:
1 ton=1000 kg
1 kg=  1000 gr
1 gr = 1000 mg
1 ton = 1000000000 mg

the difference is the amount of bitcoins is final,whereas gold is as rare as it is
can be mined for quite a long time,with the new sources of it being discovered every now and then
but all in all,the talks of comparison of bitcoins to gold is nothing but the Overtone's window in action
it adds value to an otherwise useless asset as bitcoin(don't throw stones at me,just think for a moment)
and prepares it to if not overtake gold,then to serve as a parallel commodity