Is Bitcoin truly a safe-haven asset?

[OneGoLuck]

Bitcoin has 2 weaknesses.
1. The bitcoin encryption could be broken. Be it QC or a clever algorithm or whatever. That would make bitcoin almost worthless overnight.
2. The blockchain grows every day. Unless something is done, eventually it will become too big. And then one by one the nodes will quit supporting the network.

1. Technically true, without a doubt. But let's take note that Bitcoin's encryption being broken is going to be the least of our problems if the encryption was actually broken.

That is not comforting at all. I have heard the same comment before, but it is not less of a problem, if others (eg. banks) are having problems too. If you compare to gold, banks having problems is not a problem with you holding gold.
  

Compared to gold, bitcoin is unsecure. Gold can't lose all of its value overnight.

Not sure how you even compare Bitcoin's security to a piece of metal to be honest. Also, remember that gold can a lot more easily be faked. To be completely sure if the gold you're receiving is actually legit, you'd have to do some chemistry or some applying of pressure or go ask some business to verify it for you.

Bitcoin can't be faked, and it is one of bitcoins strengths. But if you have gold that has been verified to be real what could happen to it besides it being robbed? Nothing.

[mk4]

That is not comforting at all. I have heard the same comment before, but it is not less of a problem, if others (eg. banks) are having problems too. If you compare to gold, banks having problems is not a problem with you holding gold.

Oh it's definitely not comforting. But if we reach to a point that it's going to be THAT bad, while you still have your gold with you(which is a good thing), what it will be priced in will be questionable(though I'm not saying it will crash). Because in such a case, not sure if gold is the best asset to own as it's probably going to be chaotic.

Bitcoin can't be faked, and it is one of bitcoins strengths. But if you have gold that has been verified to be real what could happen to it besides it being robbed? Nothing.

True. But the problem here is not necessarily the gold that you own that you think is legitimate. It's the process of knowing if every gold you receive is legitimate. Imagine manually verifying each gold nugget you receive. This is a problem if you're planning on actually owning the gold physically.

[BrewMaster]

Bitcoin can't be faked, and it is one of bitcoins strengths. But if you have gold that has been verified to be real what could happen to it besides it being robbed? Nothing.

True. But the problem here is not necessarily the gold that you own that you think is legitimate. It's the process of knowing if every gold you receive is legitimate. Imagine manually verifying each gold nugget you receive. This is a problem if you're planning on actually owning the gold physically.

another problem that it doesn't look like a problem until it becomes a disaster is that nowadays with all these markets and banksters people aren't even physically owning bitcoin. paper gold, contracts and all that crap have replaced it. if things go bad all these people are also screwed

[sheenshane]

High risk, high profit.

I see bitcoin is still there.

It's considerable to us as a crypto enthusiast that Bitcoin is a part of safe-haven investment even though there is a possibility of high risk but we know that times come we got a folded profit when the market becomes bullish.

We're all looking for safe-haven investment but the fact that burden us and I believed that fear and anxiety was the obstacle in choosing a safe-haven investment, negative emotion will bring you down. If you believed that you are safe in investing in crypto, go on and stand of what you have been believed, if that is gold, government bond, or what so ever kind of investment. Because all form of investment has a risk, you will never know what will happen next.

[kryptqnick]

Bitcoin evangelist has always attributed Bitcoin to be a safe-haven asset, while extreme fanatics believe that Bitcoin is far better than gold. Bitcoin was born in the wake of the 2008 financial crash as a libertarian currency and as an instrument that could help cushion the event of a future financial crisis.

Since Bitcoin is purely a speculative risk asset, many people have doubted its position as a purported safe-haven asset, I am not one of them anyways. However, since Bitcoin hasn't witnessed a global recession yet, I feel Bitcoin hasn't sufficiently defended its narrative as a safe-haven asset.

As the possibility of a global recession intensifies, what's your take on the possible performance of Bitcoin? will it go down with the traditional market or will it defend its name? I am very much interested to know.

Not every Bitcoin enthusiast would agree Bitcoin is a safe haven. Some consider Bitcoin as money, some consider it a risky but potentially profitable investment, many just use it for trading. It's also hard to say what qualifies as a good safe haven. For instance, when Bitcoin dropped in the middle of March, Antonopoulos said Bitcoin's not a safe haven at all and that he's been saying it before. However, just in June there've been discussions that Bitcoin is the best performing asset of 2020, given the situation, so maybe it's not such a bad safe haven after all, albeit an unstable one. My view is that gold is more stable and is probably better if the person's purpose is to keep wealth safe rather than risk but have a chance of making this wealth more significant.

[Bitcoinislife09]

This subject has been discussed a couple of times before. Nonetheless, I will share my take on it.  Bitcoin is not a safe haven asset (at least not for now) but it certainly won't go down the drain with  other traditional market instruments. Bitcoin is actually bigger than most people think it is. Given the opportunity, Bitcoin would perform better than traditional assets. So far so good, Bitcoin has held its ground.

Who remembered the market crash sometime in march? Where traditional assets plunged hard? Yes. Bitcoin did too but It has fully recovered from that loss.

Many people are saying that bitcoin is really a safe heaven. It is talked for so many times and discussed many times by cryptocurrency people. I agree that for now bitcoin cannot be considered as a safe haven. In this time bitcoin is not that famous, yes many people know about bitcoin but the number of people who do not know about bitcoin is much higher. Many people still think that bitcoin and cryptocurrency is a scam due to many hackers and scammers. Though bitcoin cannot be considered as a safe haven now I know that in the future bitcoin will rise. Bitcoin really has the potential to be a number one cryptocurrency in the world. Given that the traditional currencies nowadays perform really good woth the bitcoin.

[adzino]

It totally depends. Based on current situation, most people will say no. Other who will argue saying that it is a "safe-haven" are likely being ignorant and won't be able to come up with proper argument when you start counter arguing their opinion.
We don't know whats written no the fate of bitcoin. No one knows what is going to happen next. It can prevail or it can die.

[20kevin20]

Trust? I thought the system was trustless.

The system is. But it's trustless as in you don't need a third party to prove that the money I gave you came from my wallet, has not been double spent so the coins exist and are legit and is valid.

That is completely different from the trust some people put in BTC. You need to trust Bitcoin as in you need to believe it'd be a good choice during a recession for it to survive.

If enough people do not believe it's a good safe haven asset, it won't be. Price is decided by us. If you don't believe BTC would be a good choice during a crisis, you'd sell. Same goes for other people. Well, if the number of coins sold exceeds the number of coins bought during a recession, price would obviously fail. You can't have 80% of the Apple fans never buying their products again without a big downfall and potential even collapse of it. We decide how some things go.

The history of gold ended with the advance of technology. Gold is nothing now, and in the next one hundred years it will keep losing value. It is overpriced manipulated and useless asset.

A large part of the electronics even you use have small quantities of gold or silver in them. Ever heard of "gold-coated adaptors"? To me it still looks like gold is something. We may not be creating and using golden tools anymore, but it's still used a lot in many industries. In fact, your "overpriced, manipulated and useless" part doesn't even make sense if you take a 5 second look at the gold price chart over the last 10 years.

[BuNga_cute]

It's too soon to say that Bitcoin is a safe haven asset, at least for now Bitcoin can't be a safe haven asset. The reason is simple
because the price of Bitcoin is volatile, and there is also gold that is more suitable as a safe haven for now. Bitcoin as the best
performing asset, should be used for trading. Because it can make a lot of money, but not close possibly in the future bitcoin
can become truly a safe haven.

[pixie85]

For me it is because I value my privacy and the ability to take money anywhere I go. Bitcoin allows me to do it.

I don't excpect it to work as a hedge to world finances and hold value when everything else crashes. It will never work this way.

[Ridwan Fauzi]

Again I see a thread who discuss a safe-haven asset, whereas there are many threads already
which debating against it, as you can here

1. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5242905.0
2. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5253691.0
3. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5229748.0
4. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5255990.0
5. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5244620.0
6. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5232419.0
7. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5219937.0

But for myself I'll take it as simple as possible, I'll use bitcoin as much as I can, I don't care about what many people consider. Because to me, I can use bitcoin in many functions not only fixated on a safe haven asset or a currency.

[kawetsriyanto]

I don't think there's really a asset that we can call safe-haven to begin with.~

I agree, no asset seems to deserve called "safe-haven". Even Gold has uptrend and downtrend in price. Maybe the safest asset is the land, but it is something quite limited and not to own massively. Regarding Bitcoin, it shouldn't be called as a safe-haven asset since it has some risks that everyone must pay serious attention to.
- It has a high volatility
- The market is unstable or fluctuating
- Serious threats from hackers
- The real use in daily life is still very limited
- Etc

Read more here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2018/12/05/the-top-10-risks-of-bitcoin-investing-and-how-to-avoid-them/#658a9b932407

[Twinkledoe]

Again I see a thread who discuss a safe-haven asset, whereas there are many threads already
which debating against it, as you can here

1. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5242905.0
2. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5253691.0
3. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5229748.0
4. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5255990.0
5. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5244620.0
6. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5232419.0
7. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5219937.0

But for myself I'll take it as simple as possible, I'll use bitcoin as much as I can, I don't care about what many people consider. Because to me, I can use bitcoin in many functions not only fixated on a safe haven asset or a currency.

The OP should visit those above mentioned thread to gain more perspectives on this matter. But yes, if you are not focusing on being the safe have asset or not, one can always use bitcoin in so many ways. But if a person wants it to hold for long time without touching it once acquired, I believe that person needs to educate himself more about crypto and the risks involved. So he will not be disappointed if the expectations are not met.

[LogitechMouse]

First of all, lets take the definition of safe-haven asset base on Investopedia.

A safe haven is an investment that is expected to retain or increase in value during times of market turbulence. Safe havens are sought by investors to limit their exposure to losses in the event of market downturns.

The main idea here is the bold text base on the definition. In that part alone, we can say that Bitcoin isn't considered a safe haven asset because it doesn't limit the investors to the exposure of losses. We saw Bitcoin going down and up many times already and did some huge downside movement.

[gamer4156]

Online is a completely uncertain world. You always have to keep in mind the damage. You can't do big things here without risk. Since Bitcoin is currently at the top of popularity. Bitcoin promotion and spread is increasing. Considering all these aspects, it can be said that yes Bitcoin truly a safe-haven asset.

[Negotiation]

I think the potential performance of Bitcoin is going to be better as the global recession intensifies. We can call Bitcoin a safe haven but Bitcoin is a volatile currency and its price always fluctuates. Therefore, depending on the market its price increases However the emergence of Bitcoin after the recession so if the demand for Bitcoin increases after the epidemic it will give much better performance Contributes to the development of the country's economy.

[famososMuertos]

How much is your interest in bitcoin, in other words the security in bitcoin is measured by the size of the investment risk and its prompt return.

Bitcoin is safe in the long term, whatever the return you have (up-down) the risk is held by people who convert their Fiat money into bitcoin, with fear, and not as an investor, if they did it as an investment they knew that there is a level risk, by the way natural of the stock market or trade, not just bitcoin.

Bitcoin is an asset that every person who wants to invest or diversify their investment portfolio must have, but the best bitcoin has an investment range that starts from 1 satoshi, so start investing now!
Bitcoin's security lies in yourself, don't try to guess how much to invest, especially based on third-party results.

[KrisAlex18]

First things first, what are you definition about the word "safe haven"? we have all different perception about the definition of that word, for me, it's a thing that we can give our full trust whenever we want to do something but the thing is there is no safe haven asset in this crypto world, all cryptocurrency changes its price time by time, it's hard to believe because there are times that we get lost of our money because of believing so mich about cryptocurrency, we do invest and trading which results for being lost sometimes.

To me that in the year 2017, Bitcoin could reach its peak. So I'm sure if Bitcoin can return to its peak in the future.

Indeed, that year is the best year for all crypto users, its the time when the bitcoin price reaches so high which makes us earn so much money when we had invested our money before it started.

[davis196]

Bitcoin evangelist has always attributed Bitcoin to be a safe-haven asset, while extreme fanatics believe that Bitcoin is far better than gold. Bitcoin was born in the wake of the 2008 financial crash as a libertarian currency and as an instrument that could help cushion the event of a future financial crisis.

Since Bitcoin is purely a speculative risk asset, many people have doubted its position as a purported safe-haven asset, I am not one of them anyways. However, since Bitcoin hasn't witnessed a global recession yet, I feel Bitcoin hasn't sufficiently defended its narrative as a safe-haven asset.

As the possibility of a global recession intensifies, what's your take on the possible performance of Bitcoin? will it go down with the traditional market or will it defend its name? I am very much interested to know.

If you ask me,Bitcoin should NOT be a safe heaven asset.Bitcoin should be a fully functional currency used by millions of people in their daily life for purchasing goods and services both online and offline.
Unfortunately,the limited supply+volatile demand or Bitcoin leads to a high price volatility,which makes Bitcoin not very suitable for a functional currency.
We can decide whether or not Bitcoin is a safe heaven asset only after this recession ends,so we could analyze the Bitcoin price behavior during the entire recession.

[DoubleEdgeEX]

Not yet, but is has the potential to become one in the future. As for now, it´s an additional asset, one that can change the world or actually is. The thing with new things is, humans prefer their old-school, safe, way of doing things because of fear of uncertainty. The main advise is, never put all your eggs in one basket, never invest in a coin (or any other random asset) if you don´t know the details about it and never invest money you can´t afford to lose. As for Bitcoin, patience is needed. You might be down and losing in the short term but the long distance runner wins the game.