Why do many people call Bitcoin "digital gold"?

[RainbowKun]

My last post described that Bitcoin was given the attribute of matter when it was created by Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin is as unique and non-replicable as matter. For this reason, Bitcoin is often compared with gold. Why is Bitcoin called "digital gold"? I want to discuss it with everyone.

Satoshi Nakamoto's original intention to create Bitcoin was to establish an A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. This kind of electronic cash can be used for daily payment and circulation, and can also serve as a "world currency" function. The role of "world currency" was once played by gold, so some people compare Bitcoin to digital gold.

To a certain extent, Bitcoin is replacing gold as a "world currency" and a "store of value" function. This is also the basic consensus that supports the price of Bitcoin. I summarized the following points:

1)Bitcoin, like gold, has a limited total amount and is scarce, and neither can be supplied infinitely. At the same time, it is very difficult to obtain, and it requires cost.
2)Bitcoin and gold have similar physical properties, and both have the uniqueness of matter. Can not be tampered with, can not be copied, can be physically divided.
3)Both Bitcoin and gold have similar monetary properties and can be used for daily payments or as a store of value.
4)Bitcoin can also perform the function of "world currency" and anchor global assets.

Compared with gold, Bitcoin also has the following advantages:

1)Continuous deflation in quantity:
The total amount of Bitcoin is 21 million, and the total amount is constant, and it is constantly being mined in the form of "mining". But at the same time, more and more Bitcoin owners may lose their private keys for various reasons, causing Bitcoins to no longer be found and circulated. This phenomenon occurs every day, so the total amount of bitcoins that can be circulated will only become less and less in the future.
2)Easier to divide:
Compared to gold, Bitcoin is easier to divide. The smallest unit of bitcoin is 1 satoshi, and a bitcoin can be divided into 100 million satoshis. At the same time, the Bitcoin split has almost no cost, while the golden section has a huge cost.
3)Easier to carry and trade:
Benefiting from the fast-growing cryptocurrency exchange business, Bitcoin can be traded uninterruptedly within a 24-hour time frame around the world. At this point, Bitcoin's global circulation is better than gold.
4)Can not forge:
All Bitcoin data is controlled by the Bitcoin network and cannot be forged or tampered with. On this basis, Bitcoin successfully established code trust. To a certain extent, gold can be faked. We often see various news or fraud cases about gold fraud. At this point, Bitcoin is also a winner.
5)More transparent:
Compared to gold, Bitcoin has the advantage of being more transparent. Gold trading is not public, and many traders use "paper gold." But every transaction of Bitcoin is open and transparent, and its transaction records can be found on the chain. This is the cornerstone of Bitcoin's value.
6)More decentralized:
Gold is a product controlled by a centralized organization, that is, the government. On the one hand, the central banks of various countries monopolize the vast majority of gold reserves. On the other hand, the government can introduce policies to restrict ordinary people from holding gold. This has resulted in the vast majority of people being only able to invest in gold derivatives such as "paper gold".

But for Bitcoin, anyone can buy and sell Bitcoin without restriction at any time. At the same time, individuals have absolute ownership of Bitcoin's private keys instead of relying on some centralized institutions. Bitcoin puts assets under the control of their owners.

We found that Bitcoin has many advantages that gold does not have on the basis of the characteristics of gold. If Bitcoin replaces gold as a value anchor, the market value of Bitcoin will definitely exceed gold. This is the basic logic that supports the price of Bitcoin.

According to statistics, the total market value of global gold currently exceeds 8 trillion U.S. dollars. If the market value of Bitcoin exceeds 8 trillion U.S. dollars, the value of a single Bitcoin will exceed 400,000 U.S. dollars. This is just a judgment on Bitcoin's value as a "digital gold".

Why do many people call Bitcoin "digital gold"?

[maisao1991]

in my opinion BTC is called digital gold because it has a position and is at the top of the virtual currency market, but if talking about higher value I think diamond, I also have a question. is why BTC is not likened to diamond but gold, do you think like me?.

[hd49728]

Because people think Bitcoin can be a digital store of asset. Gold as physical store of asset. When they believe like that, it means they believe in the intrinsic value of Bitcoin.

Their belief can be right and is based by valuable reasons or can be wrong and is not based on anything.

If you see good reasons from their belief, Bitcoin has good future. I share on informative article to you. They bullish case for Bitcoin

[velosepur]

They say that because bitcoin is no1 crypto asset-coin. In crypto world is strongest so that can be first reason I think. Bitcoin is in eyes of holders potential money in pocket which can grow x10 or x100, what happen before so people hope history will happen again.

[Ucy]

 I think the price of gold could be worth more than it currently is if not for the industrial uses and possibly fake gold in circulation.

Bitcoin deserves the price at the end of your post if it can do alot more without compromising on its ideals. And it deserves the name digital gold but for some reasons I'm not sure it should be called Digital Gold

[maju69]

Simply put, in addition to the function, the nature and benefits of both have in common, don't forget as one that can be parallel to gold in any aspect. because when you don't compare it with gold, then what else can be equalized and equalized in value, function, characteristics, and benefits that are the same as Bitcoin?

[haidil]

people call it that not without reason, because we have seen the prospects of bitcoin getting better and better and it has been proven that now btc is still at the top and there is still no one to compete with it.
besides that btc is an asset that will be very valuable in the future which is why bitcoin is called that

[mk4]

You pretty much covered most of it; and I totally agree that Bitcoin's total addressable market is huge, even bigger than gold's. It's just that a lot of people are skeptical of Bitcoin solely because of it being intangible(besides some other things that's mostly because of ignorance). While digitization definitely has it's advantages, it's just that people like shiny good looking things.

[Renampun]

some well-known investors like Robert Kiyosaki continue to call Bitcoin is 'digital gold'

I myself don't mind what they call Bitcoin but Bitcoin is actually not digital gold because its value is not based on gold. Bitcoin to me is more valuable than gold, the position of Bitcoin is higher than gold.

[Welsh]

it's just that people like shiny good looking things.

This is backed up by the evidence we have from how popular Casascius conis were, and all the other variations which were released after. People just love to hold a physical item, and I'm not sure what the psychology is behind that, but there's definitely a reason for it. Casascius identified this early, and made major profits during the time they were selling the coins.

However, despite us wanting to hold a physical item, modern times are changing quite quickly, most people are becoming accustomed to handling their finances online, where as 5-10 years ago, most people thought of it as insecure.  So, while at the moment people like shiny physical things, it is quickly changing. Several challenging banks are now operating entirely online, and don't even have any local branches that you can go too. Bitcoin will most certainly benefit from this psychological shift in our culture.

[tulusikhlas]

I think the price of gold could be worth more than it currently is if not for the industrial uses and possibly fake gold in circulation.

with respect to fake gold in circulation can bitcoins equate to having fake bitcoins in circulation? wouldn't that have a pretty basic bit of difference?
so far if gold is placed in your house with a nominal 1 BTC. will be very vulnerable than storing BTC in a wallet and securing seeds offline.

[franky1]

2)Easier to divide:
Compared to gold, Bitcoin is easier to divide. The smallest unit of bitcoin is 1 satoshi, and a bitcoin can be divided into 100 million satoshis. At the same time, the Bitcoin split has almost no cost, while the golden section has a huge cost.

in the blockchain... there is no btc..
there is no 21mill limit rule

in gold in the ground there is no bars of 1tonne, 12kg. or ounces of 28 grams
there is no 195thousand tonne limit that then gets divided

..
the real limit and measures.. start small
miners mine sats and grams

its only 'basket termed' for easy human brain to understand big numbers after the mine

in 2009 the first block reward was not 50btc.
it was 5000000000sats. and every 4 years that reward number halves

for graphic user interface after the data fact. this is divided down by 100mill to become 1btc basket term
so technically your not splitting a bitcoin. your instead lumping sats into a btc basket

grams of gold can be lumped together into bags of kg gold or smelted into tonne bars
but humans years ago decided to lump gold into bars of 12,000 grams as their basket number
and a subset 28gram = 1 ounce

..
but the point is
bitcoin always is a unit of measure from sats -up
gold always is a unit of measure from gram -up

it only becomes basket terms down.. AFTER humans play around with it

some well-known investors like Robert Kiyosaki continue to call Bitcoin is 'digital gold'

I myself don't mind what they call Bitcoin but Bitcoin is actually not digital gold because its value is not based on gold. Bitcoin to me is more valuable than gold, the position of Bitcoin is higher than gold.

According to statistics, the total market value of global gold currently exceeds 8 trillion U.S. dollars. If the market value of Bitcoin exceeds 8 trillion U.S. dollars, the value of a single Bitcoin will exceed 400,000 U.S. dollars. This is just a judgment on Bitcoin's value as a "digital gold".

Why do many people call Bitcoin "digital gold"?

its an concept analogy..... not a asset-peg-reference

EG concept analogy :-yes
'its mined, like gold.. bit digitally'
EG pegged asset:- no
'its digitally backed by gold'

[Welsh]

with respect to fake gold in circulation can bitcoins equate to having fake bitcoins in circulation? wouldn't that have a pretty basic bit of difference?

Nah, since its not currently possible to inject any more Bitcoin into the network, and the way of introducing more Bitcoin into circulation is through mining. There isn't another way of doing it. Obviously, you could potentially argue that double spending might be considered as fake coins, since it would give the illusion at first that you've paid legitimately, but only one transaction of that double spend would be accepted by the miners, while the other one would be made invalid, and rejected by the network. So, double spend is probably the closest you can get to "fake coins" in circulation, however its not truly in circulation.

[bosede1]

I think people call bitcoin digital gold because of the qualities gold possesses. We operate bitcoin digitally i.e electronically and internet-based but the gold aspect gold is something valuable, of high recognition to everybody, mention gold to poor, average, and middle class they know what this is even the illiterate knows about it. I think they took it contextually and at the face value.

[swogerino]

The only analogy I can find useful is that both "goods" can be used as store of value,gold physically and bitcoin digitally.There is no other analogy that fits into play because everything else is different,gold can be stolen a whole lot more easily than bitcoin can so in this sense bitcoin is more secure and I am not talking here for people who don't know how to safe guard their wallets.Gold is heavier to carry while Bitcoin can be kept in your mobile phone wallet and there are a lot of other differences like these.Not anyone can easily buy gold but everyone can easily buy Bitcoin.So the only true analogy is the first one,they both are some of the best store of values we have out there.

[nurilham]

Bitcoin is actually not digital gold because its value is not based on gold.

Of course, no correlation between the BTC value and gold. People call it digital gold because people assume the potential of Bitcoin in the future can be as good as gold, even it can be better than gold.

Bitcoin to me is more valuable than gold, the position of Bitcoin is higher than gold.

What position? Make it clear, mate.
Which one is more valuable should depend on a personal viewpoint. Valuable doesn't always refer to the price. If we consider its use for various purposes, gold seems easier to use as it is legal in all countries around the world. While Bitcoin still has many limitations for its use, especially for a payment tool. But if we consider the possible profits to hold BTC or Gold, BTC is better. BTC price can increase significantly, much higher than the gold price.

[DoublerHunter]

Bitcoin to me is more valuable than gold, the position of Bitcoin is higher than gold.

What position? Make it clear, mate.
Which one is more valuable should depend on a personal viewpoint. Valuable doesn't always refer to the price. If we consider its use for various purposes, gold seems easier to use as it is legal in all countries around the world. While Bitcoin still has many limitations for its use, especially for a payment tool. But if we consider the possible profits to hold BTC or Gold, BTC is better. BTC price can increase significantly, much higher than the gold price.

^ This does not make any sense to me while I always heard comparing these two valuable assets the gold and the BTC. They had different characteristics, the pros and cons on each other, they had different usage so we can't compare the physical one into a digital valuable currency. It is very simple and we don't this thing becomes complicated, BTC is profitable in saving value and does not spend but it has a high risk. It is digital gold because its value has like gold.

[hatshepsut93]

Gold is an iconic store of value, so people who want to highlight that they view Bitcoin as a store of value compare it to gold. You provided arguments why Bitcoin is better than gold, but there are also arguments why it's worse. It relies on electricity, electronic devices and the Internet, the things that we take for granted but could disappear if some catastrophic event happens. Bitcoin wallets can be hacked, there are countless examples of huge thefts. Gold is less likely to be stolen, because physical heists are less common than hacks. Gold has thousands of years of being store of value, Bitcoin only existed for a little more than a decade. Bitcoin is still not 100% proven, even the devs call it a beta version.

[taufik123]

it is not wrong if people refer to Bitcoin as digital gold because of its value. But Bitcoin and gold are very different even though bitcoin is very popular today. Gold is a type of investment that has physics and a stable price. Gold is also used as a "safehaven" asset or a very good hedging asset. While bitcoin cannot be used as a hedging asset because of the fluctuating price of bitcoin and bitcoin too

Higher returns always look profitable and attract speculation in assets, but high returns are always accompanied by high risk.
Bitcoin and gold are similar assets, but they are different. The main difference between Bitcoin and Gold lies in their growing environment. Bitcoin thrives during “risk-on” conditions, while gold prefers “risk-off”

[Vaskiy]

In the past and at present people prioritise gold as an asset that helps in emergency. It can be exchanged easily through banking and other financial services. Maybe people might've experienced something similar with bitcoin. Once it is not an easy task to exchange bitcoin,, now with the increasing adoption and access for for more exchanges make it easier than the past. This looks to be the reason for bitcoin getting termed as digital gold.