Why do people compare tangible Gold with intangible Bitcoin

[Donneski]

Gold being tangible while Bitcoin is digital is not the the reason they're frequently compared. It is the role they play that fuels the comparison. Gold has been in existence for centuries and people buy it to protect wealth, while Bitcoin on the other side has proven to be a another good option of protecting wealth in less than 2 decades of existence. While Gold enjoys higher percentage of trust because of it's  thousands of years of existence, Bitcoin offers easier storage and transfer. These are the reasons the debate will always come up.

[Hypnotizer]

If you have 20k$ , would you buy gold or BTC? why? economics behind your choice. Keep in mind the volatility and variations of both

You want a point from personal preference or economic perspective?

If we’re talking about the economic perspective of this question of yours then…it’s totally dependent on your risk tolerance/risk taking ability and so on. Many factors to consider like whether the money is an amount you can “afford to lose” or it’s your life savings …it’s either you’re someone that want a stable assets  or someone who can handle the risks of investing in bitcoin.

I’d personally invest around $15k in bitcoin and use the remaining $5k to invest in some cash flowing investment because I’ve never been I big fan of gold..

[Exitoral]

Gold isn't scarce because it can be mined more and more with the passage of time but bitcoin has fixed supply of 21 million.
Splitting of gold can be easy but up to some extent while 1 BTC is equal to100,000,000 satoshis. In portability gold is heavy to carry and might need security if in large quantity but you send million dollars of BTC in 10 minutes. The track record of gold is more than 4000 years while their of BTC it is only 18 years probably. Still many of the people are convinced that BTC is better than gold. How?

None is better than the other. Gold itself is valuable. Just that I can't buy gold and be carrying it up and down.  You will still have to store it somewhere that you yourself when you really need it will take time to get to you. But with Bitcoin, you can carry it anywhere with you in the world. That ease alone beats gold. Gold is still valuable just that the ease of movement is not there.

[Livingleged]

None is better than the other. Gold itself is valuable. Just that I can't buy gold and be carrying it up and down.  You will still have to store it somewhere that you yourself when you really need it will take time to get to you. But with Bitcoin, you can carry it anywhere with you in the world. That ease alone beats gold. Gold is still valuable just that the ease of movement is not there.

Both has good long store of value  but if you are the type  that cant be patient with things that has to do with finance  then bitcoin  isn't for you. Reason  being  that bitcoin  is volatile  and that's just the problem that everyone have with bitcoin, but that's not in the case of gold, and that why most people prefer gold  over the bitcoin, and of course gold will be more difficult  to store since  it's a physical  asset. However  both has security  challenge but bitcoin  is easier  to store because  most people  will not even know you have it if you don't let them know.

[iBaba]

Gold isn't scarce because it can be mined more and more with the passage of time but bitcoin has fixed supply of 21 million.
Splitting of gold can be easy but up to some extent while 1 BTC is equal to100,000,000 satoshis. In portability gold is heavy to carry and might need security if in large quantity but you send million dollars of BTC in 10 minutes. The track record of gold is more than 4000 years while their of BTC it is only 18 years probably. Still many of the people are convinced that BTC is better than gold. How?

The main reason here is that many people view bitcoin as an improvement on some of golds monetary system properties. Gold has a much longer history and has proven itself over thousands of years, so bitcoin can not compete with that gold track record yet. I think the main reason many people prefer bitcoin is that it combines scarcity with portability. While gold is scarce, it supply still grows every year through mining. Bitcoin has a fixed maximum supply of 21 million coins and more than 19 million have already been mined.
Another advantage that bitcoin has is divisibility, 1 billion can be divided into 100,000,000 satoshis, making it easier to use for transactions of any size. Try sending the equivalent of $1 million worth of gold across the world within an hour, it would involve transportation, insurance and security costs. With bitcoin, the transfer can be completed digitally without moving any physical asset.

[Findingnemo]

Gold is finite and only you can mine so much gold from the earth so it is not infinite and for the moment, let's keep the asteroid mining apart. Gold is one of the most successful forms of money we have ever used in history, it is trusted and accepted everywhere even now. So in the same way people compare bitcoin with gold because of the price factors and trust. But it doesn't make sense though because it is comparing apple with orange and you can't say which one is better than the other unless you got a preference already.

[Agathamay]

Gold is theoretically nearly infinite in the Universe and there's thousands of tons gold inside the Earth, but economically speaking, it is irrelevant. The accessible gold is what's scarce.

Bitcoin and gold share similarities. Both are hard money and scarce. Both have proved to be storing your purchasing power overtime.

And personally I see no reasons for comparisons.
If op believes so much in gold, then he should stick to it and not trying to make it seem like bitcoin is taking away the glory of gold which isn't.

The true concept of bitcoin was to act as a decentralized digital currency but over the time, its volatility has opened more opportunities to it and yes it has made it possible for bitcoin to be a store of value and not just a regular currency which is why people troop into buying and holding bitcoin.

[macson]

Still many of the people are convinced that BTC is better than gold. How?

If you ask that in this forum, of course, people will say that Bitcoin is much better than gold. What answer do you expect? Unless you ask it in an economic forum or to ordinary people, they'll probably say that gold is better because they're more familiar with it.

But I don't think it's necessary to say which is better than the other, because both have their own advantages. If you say that gold is better, then so be it --- but people here will say that Bitcoin is better, and you can't change their mind.

[AmoreJaz]

Gold is finite and only you can mine so much gold from the earth so it is not infinite and for the moment, let's keep the asteroid mining apart. Gold is one of the most successful forms of money we have ever used in history, it is trusted and accepted everywhere even now. So in the same way people compare bitcoin with gold because of the price factors and trust. But it doesn't make sense though because it is comparing apple with orange and you can't say which one is better than the other unless you got a preference already.

I believe people just want reassurance that btc can give them the profitability or is comparable with gold. But we all know that gold has tangible usage that btc can't offer to the public. Just consider the gold's usage in the semicon industry including the gadgets that we are using to store our satoshis. Without gold, most semicon products such as laptops, desktops won't exist. There are parts in these gadgets that require gold. Hence, for me, we should not compare gold and btc. Because they are actually not comparable in my opinion.

But just to give an overview about their aspects, we can say that gold has something that btc can't offer despite of its high volatile market.

https://www.tastycrypto.com/blog/bitcoin-vs-gold/

[Awaklara]

Still many of the people are convinced that BTC is better than gold. How?

I think it is related to technology and the use of Bitcoin. Gold is still good to keep until now and has indeed proven over a very long time, having an investment value that continues to grow. But we know that gold is a physical asset that is not easy to store. Meanwhile, with today's technological advancements, we need everything to be fast and possibly something you can carry without worrying about leaving assets behind when traveling.

[headingnorth]

Gold isn't scarce because it can be mined more and more with the passage of time ...

That is true but an oversimplification. More gold can be mined, but the cost of mining it is always rising as deposits become depleted.

Because gold has been mined for thousands of years, the easiest and cheapest to mine surface supplies are long gone.
Every year you have to dig deeper and deeper to find it, or you have to travel farther out to the middle of nowhere to find it.
That raises your exploration, infrastructure and transportation costs, and all these higher costs are reflected in today's record high gold prices.

But the real problem with gold and silver is that they have always been heavily manipulated and suppressed.
Despite that gold has had a record run in recent times, but it may have peaked for now and we may not see much
higher prices for months to years. Much of that is likely due to manipulation.

The other major problem for US investors is the much higher taxes you pay on your profits.
In the US the capital gains tax is normally 15 to 20% but for gold and silver it is 28%.

[Luzin]

Gold being tangible while Bitcoin is digital is not the the reason they're frequently compared. It is the role they play that fuels the comparison. .

The recognition of the two items is also different. Gold has been officially recognized, while Bitcoin is only through commodities. Both are alternatives for storing money. In fact, gold has already become a reserve asset. I think it is this always-rising price pattern that makes its value fantastic. Although indeed, the performance of crypto currently feels better than its profits.

[Iranus]

Still many of the people are convinced that BTC is better than gold. How?

Many people, but not all. And only Bitcoin investors say that Bitcoin is better than gold, while the rest of the world does not share that view.

Each asset has its own group of conservative and loyal investors. You should not be surprised that we are on a Bitcoin forum and everyone tends to be more supportive of Bitcoin.

Human nature is like that. People tend to support what they choose and are willing to undervalue what they did not choose, no matter how good it is.

[m2017]

Gold isn't scarce because it can be mined more and more with the passage of time

Resources on planet Earth are also limited, including gold. Furthermore, gold mining is becoming more technically complex and more expensive (think of it as a halving), as readily available gold has already been mined.

but bitcoin has fixed supply of 21 million.

Which may be reduced due to lost bitcoins.

In portability gold is heavy to carry and might need security if in large quantity but you send million dollars of BTC in 10 minutes.

But to send bitcoin, you need electricity and internet access. Each type of asset has its own advantages and disadvantages.

The track record of gold is more than 4000 years while their of BTC it is only 18 years probably. Still many of the people are convinced that BTC is better than gold. How?

Age isn't the determining factor in "which is better" It's just that bitcoin is technically a newer form of money (it was originally intended to be money).

Bitcoin definitely offers new opportunities compared to gold. Therefore, people consider it better than gold.

"Why do people compare tangible gold with intangible Bitcoin?" - because despite all the differences, these assets have a similarity: the ability to "freeze" and "accumulate" value.

[Rabata]

Gold isn't scarce because it can be mined more and more with the passage of time but bitcoin has fixed supply of 21 million.

People have been interested in gold since ancient times, but with time, the interest among people is also changing. Although gold is considered a store of value, it is not fully capable of providing security of wealth. Again, in the case of gold, there is no limit to its total supply, that is, if there is a gold mine, then the supply of gold will increase.

There are also various complications in verifying gold. If a person can own a large amount of gold, he must take the help of someone else to secure that gold. Those who have a large amount of gold, even if they want to, cannot easily move that gold from one place to another. On the other hand, in the case of Bitcoin, there is a certain supply, due to which its demand will increase over time and its price will also increase. It does not take much time to understand whether Bitcoin is real or fake, it can be understood by just looking at the network. That is, Bitcoin is now better than gold in all aspects. If a person who is holding gold, if he holds Bitcoin, then he will definitely benefit more than gold in all aspects. From a financial perspective, if someone wants to use Bitcoin instead of gold, then they will definitely benefit relatively more than gold.

[CryptoYar]

It is old vs new thing, a four thousand year old, tangy, real asset vs brand new digital system. Sure, gold has always been standard by which wealth saving is measured, but in digital world that is rapidly changing, gold physical nature is huge load. Real advantage of digital one over metal that can still be dug up from somewhere, IMO, is its absolute scarcity, 21 million coins. I think that younger generations would much other carry easily proven, borderless, record book, than carry large amount of heavy bars with need to have security and vaults with high dollar cost to do things. Modern counterpart does away with problems of splitting and carrying, while older one has the advantage of being old. It is not about destroying history, it is about making most of the speed of sound money for modern day Internet.

[YellowSwap]

Gold is more visible, Bitcoin can't be seen, this is normally a win for me, I can blend along with poor people in a remote area and they will look at me like someone who is struggling and this keeps me safe until I decide to leave the area.

It's very easy to live a quiet life with bitcoin than having some gold bar in your basement, still I like Gold, it's not bad bit it's not close to Bitcoin in terms of supply, Gold is infinite in supply, buried underneath and hard to find.

Bitcoin total supply is known and it's very limited, scarcity hits Bitcoin more than gold and that's why I believe that in the future Bitcoin will leave Gold behind in terms of value wise.

[ThemePen]

Gold is more visible, Bitcoin can't be seen, this is normally a win for me, I can blend along with poor people in a remote area and they will look at me like someone who is struggling and this keeps me safe until I decide to leave the area.

It's very easy to live a quiet life with bitcoin than having some gold bar in your basement, still I like Gold, it's not bad bit it's not close to Bitcoin in terms of supply, Gold is infinite in supply, buried underneath and hard to find.

Bitcoin total supply is known and it's very limited, scarcity hits Bitcoin more than gold and that's why I believe that in the future Bitcoin will leave Gold behind in terms of value wise.

For centuries, people have trusted precious metals for wealth protection, as physical goods with real presence. I think that Bitcoin digital form is huge plus towards living a private and safe life as compared to gold. Nobody can see your Bitcoin wallet, so you can go anywhere and not get unwelcome attention or become target of criminals. Plus, gold mining firms discover gold each and every year, and Bitcoin has limit which can not be changed by anybody. This total scarcity is what makes it possible that value of this digital coin will probably rise much in the long run, faster than those old style metals.

[Franctoshi]

Gold isn't scarce because it can be mined more and more with the passage of time but bitcoin has fixed supply of 21 million.
Splitting of gold can be easy but up to some extent while 1 BTC is equal to100,000,000 satoshis. In portability gold is heavy to carry and might need security if in large quantity but you send million dollars of BTC in 10 minutes. The track record of gold is more than 4000 years while their of BTC it is only 18 years probably. Still many of the people are convinced that BTC is better than gold. How?

It's crystal clear that gold is a scarce commodity but not fixed, whereas Bitcoin is absolutely fixed, no one can ever print more than 21 million Bitcion and that is a big blow to gold, one very distinctive difference between gold and Bitcoin, and that alone is making Bitcoin get increasingly preferred by institutions and other individual investors lately. So in this case, no one actually knows how much gold is left, and supply can increase with time and with the advancement in technology. If you checked, asteroid mining is on NASA's roadmap; also, gold can be found in the ocean floors. This doesn't happen with Bitcoin; even we lost more and more Bitcoin with time, and that makes it even more scarce.

[TheUltraElite]

Gold is ingrained in our past and our traditions. You cannot compare it with BTC. Both have their own good and bad and both should be there in your portfolio at varying volume of allotment.

Problems with governments and internet and electricity will affect bitcoin, but we are seeing how these can also be circumvented. Still if your merchant does not want to accept bitcoin you are out of luck.

Gold on the other hand can be spent anywhere as long as you are owning it and the merchant is accepting it, if they dont, bank surely will.