How Bitcoin differs from gold

[Nathrixxx]

With the little summary from my perspective what I see as difference between gold and Bitcoin.
Firstly gold is a physical commodity asset While Bitcoin is a digital currency/asset and with this, they are the two major assets on the economy trend on investment and with the highest bids on commodity price.

Gold is stable and regulated by government while Bitcoin is volatile and not regulated by government.

Gold requires hard human and physical labour to be acquired while Bitcoin required high computer skills and operations even though they both have the term "mining" as to how they got generated.

Gold is centralized while Bitcoin is decentralized.

Gold has been in existence before ages while Bitcoin got into existence 2009
Relevant opinions are welcome,

Gold’s market capitalization is around 11 trillion USD. That means it’s the most precious metal globally. No asset has also challenged its position within the global economy. Initially, people used gold to back other currencies. Today, critics argue that early investors poorly did gold’s adoption to the current economic system. But, this is a testament to the undying and strength of this asset.

However, the emergence and increasing popularity of the pioneer cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, has sparked a debate about the possibility of a gold replacement. Some people argue that Bitcoin could replace gold in its position within the global economy. That’s because Bitcoin had outperformed gold several times since its inception back in 2009. But how does this cryptocurrency differ from gold?

The Driving Forces
Among the forces driving the increasing Bitcoin’s price is the perception of its potential as a hedge against possible inflation. The economic turmoil and devastation caused by the global pandemic prompted large institutions and small-scale investors to consider this digital asset. That’s because they think it can defend them against inflation during difficult economic times.

Essentially, Bitcoin’s supply has a cap of 21 million. And this differentiates it from fiat money that politicians can print at any time. As more individuals and institutions purchase Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency will become scarcer. And this will push its value upwards.
Additionally, Bitcoin depends on the blockchain, which is a decentralized technology, and it allows for the immovable and unique record. With this technology, investors enjoy security and easy access to transaction information at any time.

Bitcoin’s decentralization means you can participate in crypto exchange without any interference from the government or banks. What’s more, Bitcoin allows for more privacy and anonymity. That because you don’t have to disclose personal information when sending or receiving Bitcoin.

Volatility
Bitcoin is a highly volatile digital asset. And this causes concern among investors that want to use it as a haven asset.
Intrinsic Value
The conductive and anti-corrosive properties combined with the established cultural tradition of gold have given it the commercial usage history. People use gold to produce jewelry and other luxury items. This precious metal also has other applications, such as in the dentistry sector. Therefore, the significant value of gold will most likely continue even in the future.

On the other hand, Bitcoin value depends on the online transaction value and the belief that people will delegate financial authority and trust to this currency. And this cryptocurrency might shine in these areas. As such, Bitcoin’s value is what users consider its worth.

It’s crucial to note that gold and Bitcoin have commonalities. For instance, both are rare resources. But while Bitcoin’s supply limit stands at 21 million, nobody knows when people will mine all the gold in the world. That’s because gold doesn’t have a finite supply like Bitcoin.
https://m.guardian.ng/business-services/how-bitcoin-differs-from-gold/amp/

[Fesatmas]

With the little summary from my perspective what I see as difference between gold and Bitcoin.
Firstly gold is a physical commodity asset While Bitcoin is a digital currency/asset and with this, they are the two major assets on the economy trend on investment and with the highest bids on commodity price.

Gold is stable and regulated by government while Bitcoin is volatile and not regulated by government.

Gold requires hard human and physical labour to be acquired while Bitcoin required high computer skills and operations even though they both have the term "mining" as to how they got generated.

Gold is centralized while Bitcoin is decentralized.

Gold has been in existence before ages while Bitcoin got into existence 2009
Relevant opinions are welcome,

Aren't these simple points enough to explain how the two assets with their own characteristics play a role in the sector? When it comes to value and durability, gold is clearly stable. But you need to underline when the government's control of Bitcoin remains a reference for us that the freedom to have wealth lies in the offering of Bitcoin. Moreover, when El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as a legal form of payment, then we see how having the integrity of freedom has clearly led El Salvador to a better digital economy growth.

[BlackHatCoiner]

Gold requires hard human and physical labour to be acquired while Bitcoin required high computer skills and operations even though they both have the term "mining" as to how they got generated.

It doesn't require high computer skills. Programmers can't “extract” more bitcoins than the rest of the users, just because they're more familiar with the computers. I know what you were trying to mean, but please look after your writings.

Gold is centralized while Bitcoin is decentralized.

Excuse me? 

Would you mind defining me what's “centralization” to you? I will just pick the first result, until you do.

the concentration of control of an activity or organization under a single authority.
In a sentence: "the centralization of all financial power in the hands of its leaders"

Gold isn't centralized. It isn't issued nor owned by one entity.

[Leviathan.007]

In a theory both are valuable assets and both can save people from the inflation rate, but there can be some differences between these two. The main difference that anyone talks about is gold got a value by itself but bitcoin won't but they forget that the supply and demand rule and make anything valuable or invaluable. The other difference can be the stability of the price since the gold market is pretty much older, there will be much stability and this would be better for people who don't want to take much risk. But generally, both are assets and people can choose to invest any of them depending on themselves.

[bittraffic]

Gold is also traded on the spot market, you just don't have that physical gold though it's much like a representation that you have something of gold not different from digital assets. I believe we all would likely want the physical gold just as we want BTC on our own wallets installed on our devices.

If you have physical gold, however, probably half a million worth of it you will have a hard time hiding it while walking unnoticed beside the street. That's a big difference when you just have BTC.

[ReiMomo]

Where the comparison comes from? Bitcoin is unique and can be used as a currency and as an asset as well. Whereas gold remain just as an asset. I am sure in future, Bitcoin will be used as an asset. Though investing on Gold remains safe, investing on BITCOIN would be really challenging always. However, I would choose Bitcoin and buy gold from the revenue I get out of Bitcoin.   

[alpamar99]

Simply put, gold is more real (can be held by hand) and bitcoin is an asset that is a currency or digital asset.
and it is true that even though gold is good and in terms of very small risk in losses, of course the profits will not be as big as bitcoin because bitcoin is indeed a risky thing in terms of volatility and its market capitalization is very different.

Gold is stable and regulated by government while Bitcoin is volatile and not regulated by government.

because bitcoin has a decentralized nature that cannot be tracked by the government because there is no third person in transacting bitcoin, this is different from gold because gold, even though it is now more modern, there is still human intervention.

[wxa7115]

In a theory both are valuable assets and both can save people from the inflation rate, but there can be some differences between these two. The main difference that anyone talks about is gold got a value by itself but bitcoin won't but they forget that the supply and demand rule and make anything valuable or invaluable. The other difference can be the stability of the price since the gold market is pretty much older, there will be much stability and this would be better for people who don't want to take much risk. But generally, both are assets and people can choose to invest any of them depending on themselves.

While gold and bitcoin are often compared and there are many similar characteristics between the two at the same time there are some dramatic differences between the two.

Probably the most important is how they derive their value from, gold is an asset that you can touch with your hands and due to its characteristics it became the preferred form of money for thousands of years, however bitcoin derives most of its value from its network effect, so the more people use it and are part of the network the more valuable it becomes.

[20kevin20]

Gold is stable and regulated by government while Bitcoin is volatile and not regulated by government.

And this is gonna change soon. At least the regulations.. when it comes to stability, we probably need at least a few more decades until we can call Bitcoin "stable" as well - although I doubt that even then there will be stability due to halvings and lost coins making BTC scarcer.

Gold requires hard human and physical labour to be acquired while Bitcoin required high computer skills and operations even though they both have the term "mining" as to how they got generated.

And here goes the difference between digital and physical. Bitcoin has digital labor while Gold has physical labor.

Gold is centralized while Bitcoin is decentralized.

You hit the rock hard here, lol. Gold isn't centralized. It came from the Universe, God or however you'd like to call it. In any case, it did certainly not come from humans. Regulations don't make a coin/asset centralized, nor does the fact that only a few people own most % of it.

Gold has been in existence before ages while Bitcoin got into existence 2009

This is both good and bad tbh. Gold has a much longer history which makes it less possible to fail as a store of value asset. Bitcoin's recent inception makes it easier to go away in the near term future. The more time passes without it going away, the smaller the chances are for failure (imo).


Overall, I think these two assets are so similar yet so different. There are many things to say about both of them that are either very similar or very contradictory. The thing is, I don't really seem to understand right now anymore the real reason and purpose of comparing the two.

[tulusikhlas]

There is no need to tell you that what makes us prefer Bitcoin in terms of profit is also obvious. In other words, Bitcoin actually offers something different. If you want to find out more, you can have a certain amount of gold in your home at the current Bitcoin price, and store the Bitcoin in your digital wallet, keeping the phrase seed in a safe place. Which is more practical and efficient for your convenience?
There was no need to talk about the advantages between the two, that was obvious from the start.

[hatshepsut93]

Gold is not stable, its price is decided on the free market and changes through the year. It's simply not as volatile as Bitcoin.

Gold is not regulated, gold markets and companies that deal with gold are. This is already happening with Bitcoin too.

Gold is decentralized, you can find it in many places on Earth or even outside of Earth. And it's a physical thing so you yourself can control it.

[Levero]

Bitcoin is decentralized, it will not be controlled by government banks or any third party, and funds can flow freely. Gold is centralized, and it is subject to the deployment and control of the national government.
The total amount of Bitcoin is limited, with a total of 21 million, which can avoid economic problems such as inflation.
Bitcoin is also easy to trade and store.Its transactions are carried out on the Internet, and as long as the Internet exists in the area, transfer transactions can be carried out all over the world.And the storage of Bitcoin can be safely owned by just putting it in the wallet and remembering the private key.

[Darker45]

For starters, bitcoin isn't tangible unless we put it in a hardware wallet that represents it as a tangible...

No, I don't think so. You put your Bitcoin anywhere, Bitcoin remains the same. It doesn't transform from intangible to tangible simply because you are using a hardware wallet. If you move your Bitcoin from your software wallet to your hardware wallet, your Bitcoin didn't actually move to your hardware wallet, so that even if your hardware wallet is destroyed, lost, or stolen it doesn't mean your Bitcoin is also destroyed, lost, or stolen. Bitcoin is always intangible. Even those so called physical Bitcoins are not really Bitcoin. They're physical coins bearing the private keys to the Bitcoin stored in the blockchain.

[fiulpro]

Bitcoins and Gold are way different as compared to each other than that they have to understand the fact that there is no need to actually compare them in the first place. Since bitcoins and cryptocurrencies are ways apart, you have to see that gold is a traditional currency which is something that people use all around the world, cryptocurrencies are more dependent on the mobile operations and the knowledge about the basic trading. But with gold you just go and buy, there are companies who are selling traditional gold as well as gold stocks. Bitcoins is way stronger but manipulations are ofcourse gonna be there as well .

[Kong Hey Pakboy]

Gold is not stable, its price is decided on the free market and changes through the year. It's simply not as volatile as Bitcoin.

Gold is not regulated, gold markets and companies that deal with gold are. This is already happening with Bitcoin too.

Gold is decentralized, you can find it in many places on Earth or even outside of Earth. And it's a physical thing so you yourself can control it.

It's stable compared to bitcoin although it's not going great but you have to understand that gold will always have a demand as well as bitcoin. What? Gold isn't regulated? Where did you get that idea from?

[Poker Player]

-snip

Your post is an accumulation of nonsense, as some have already pointed out. It seems to me that you have written it without paying attention or thinking much about what you say, for example you say:

Gold is centralized while Bitcoin is decentralized.

which is false, as pointed out by BlackHatCoiner, but it is not based on the article you cite (obviously because those who write these articles do research and check it before publishing it).

Of the things that others have pointed out as incorrect, this one has not been mentioned:

Firstly gold is a physical commodity asset While Bitcoin is a digital currency/asset and with this, they are the two major assets on the economy trend on investment and with the highest bids on commodity price.

Take a look at this and you will see how wrong you are:

https://companiesmarketcap.com/assets-by-market-cap/

Next time do your research better.

[jostorres]

It's stable compared to bitcoin although it's not going great but you have to understand that gold will always have a demand as well as bitcoin. What? Gold isn't regulated? Where did you get that idea from?

Haha, even I am hearing that gold isn't centralized and regulated for the first time. Actually, if anything we can hold and hide was decentralized then all the cash we have is technically decentralized as well

The key differences between gold and bitcoins are:

1- Gold is stable, Bitcoin is volatile
2- This point might be for me only but BTC is a currency while Gold is an asset.
3- Gold is unlimited while bitcoins are not.

The last point also underlines why so many investors are moving towards Bitcoins .

[Hydrogen]

Gold is stable and regulated by government while Bitcoin is volatile and not regulated by government.

The price of gold is determined by its largest buying/selling demographic.

The largest HODLers of gold are by far central banks and holdings such as fort knox in the USA.

Gold isn't regulated by governments. It has become common for news reports of counterfeit gold bars and coins to be published. Governments do nothing to regulate or protect the integrity of gold and precious metals markets.

Gold requires hard human and physical labour to be acquired while Bitcoin required high computer skills and operations even though they both have the term "mining" as to how they got generated.

Steve Wozniak made a great point on this. He said that technology for detecting and extracting gold from the earth would improve over time. While technology improvements for mining bitcoin would remain steadily constant, no matter what breakthroughs in bitcoin mining occurred. This infers that the price and value of bitcoin, could retain greater stability over precious metals and gold. At least as far as the mining aspect goes.

Gold is centralized while Bitcoin is decentralized.

Gold markets which determine the value of gold are centralized by the largest traders of gold. Who are central banks.

[globalpain]

Bitcoin and gold are very different from each other gold is known to the whole world but the use of bitcoin is possible only through the online world. Gold has been the single most valuable and popular asset in this world of investment for many years it is used to devalue various currencies is also used in various electronics products and is widely used in the world of jewelry. But it is even more used by investors when they need a safe haven so everyone thinks bitcoin is safer than gold.

However, if we look at the last few years I think cryptocurrencies are really growing rapidly,
many people are getting to know and start investing or trading in cryptocurrencies especially bitcoin,
apart from it all for me personally both gold and bitcoin are valuable assets because we know every year usually the price goes up

[Rajamuda]

In the investment world, both have weak and strong points, but I still more emphasis on Bitcoin. We know that gold is like a traditional thing, but Bitcoin is something that has entered the modern era, which was created had a lot of very good responses so that its advantages seem to have surpassed gold in general. In helping human finances/human economic life, I think Bitcoin has more roles than gold.