I have USD 2000 to invest. Should I buy Bitcoins or gold?

[ranlo]

Bitcoin can fall in price many times yet (in fact, it already did within the last one and a half year), or even become worthless altogether in the end. Gold, on the contrary, has never seen anything of the kind within the last few centuries at least. The only two times in history that I know of when it fell significantly in price were the periods after the Black Death devastated Europe in the 14th century and when the gold of the Incas flooded Europe in the 16th century. So, if you don't own physical gold already, this won't be a bad investment as a hedge against almost anything.

Bitcoin is for the speculative mind, gold for the conservative one.

That's because gold is backed by governments. Bitcoin is backed by individuals. Gold is also physical and can be used to create things (like jewelry), which Bitcoin can't be.

[tee-rex]

Bitcoin can fall in price many times yet (in fact, it already did within the last one and a half year), or even become worthless altogether in the end. Gold, on the contrary, has never seen anything of the kind within the last few centuries at least. The only two times in history that I know of when it fell significantly in price were the periods after the Black Death devastated Europe in the 14th century and when the gold of the Incas flooded Europe in the 16th century. So, if you don't own physical gold already, this won't be a bad investment as a hedge against almost anything.

Bitcoin is for the speculative mind, gold for the conservative one.

That's because gold is backed by governments. Bitcoin is backed by individuals. Gold is also physical and can be used to create things (like jewelry), which Bitcoin can't be.

Quite the contrary! Governments are laying themselves out to keep gold prices at bay (that is, low), since gold is a currency by and of itself but governments don't need competition with the shit they happen to print. Gold is backed by its inherent qualities, that's why it has been valued so high through centuries despite all governments efforts.

[BTC-Bank]

In my opinion you can split it, half bitcoins/half gold to be more safe.Both can be risky and profitably too but if i was you i was going to put more on bitcoins half..

Kind Regards,
BTC-Bank.

[tee-rex]

Europe is rushing into gold so expect a short rise and then a fall, I would put half in silver and half in Bitcoin (silver is low and it should go up at least 3$ an ounce by the next year)

Silver is by far more volatile than gold and subject to market manipulation. Remember the Hunt brothers who tried (but ultimately failed) to corner the world market of silver in 1980? It could actually go as high as 50$ per ounce or fall as low as 10$ (which we are not far off today), or even both.

[ranlo]

Bitcoin can fall in price many times yet (in fact, it already did within the last one and a half year), or even become worthless altogether in the end. Gold, on the contrary, has never seen anything of the kind within the last few centuries at least. The only two times in history that I know of when it fell significantly in price were the periods after the Black Death devastated Europe in the 14th century and when the gold of the Incas flooded Europe in the 16th century. So, if you don't own physical gold already, this won't be a bad investment as a hedge against almost anything.

Bitcoin is for the speculative mind, gold for the conservative one.

That's because gold is backed by governments. Bitcoin is backed by individuals. Gold is also physical and can be used to create things (like jewelry), which Bitcoin can't be.

Quite the contrary! Governments are laying themselves out to keep gold prices at bay (that is, low), since gold is a currency by and of itself but governments don't need competition with the shit they happen to print. Gold is backed by its inherent qualities, that's why it has been valued so high through centuries despite all governments efforts.

I thought the governments backed it, which is why we have things (or I believe "had?") like Fort Knox that were holding cells for it. My understanding was that gold was basically the "storage" vehicle and fiat was the method of transacting day to day, rather than carrying around gold everywhere.

[tee-rex]

Bitcoin can fall in price many times yet (in fact, it already did within the last one and a half year), or even become worthless altogether in the end. Gold, on the contrary, has never seen anything of the kind within the last few centuries at least. The only two times in history that I know of when it fell significantly in price were the periods after the Black Death devastated Europe in the 14th century and when the gold of the Incas flooded Europe in the 16th century. So, if you don't own physical gold already, this won't be a bad investment as a hedge against almost anything.

Bitcoin is for the speculative mind, gold for the conservative one.

That's because gold is backed by governments. Bitcoin is backed by individuals. Gold is also physical and can be used to create things (like jewelry), which Bitcoin can't be.

Quite the contrary! Governments are laying themselves out to keep gold prices at bay (that is, low), since gold is a currency by and of itself but governments don't need competition with the shit they happen to print. Gold is backed by its inherent qualities, that's why it has been valued so high through centuries despite all governments efforts.

I thought the governments backed it, which is why we have things (or I believe "had?") like Fort Knox that were holding cells for it. My understanding was that gold was basically the "storage" vehicle and fiat was the method of transacting day to day, rather than carrying around gold everywhere.

All governments combined together hold only a small fraction of all available gold in circulation. No one knows (well, the total majority of populace) how much gold is placed in Fort Knox and whether it is actually there (no audit since the early 1930s).

[manselr]

Bitcoin in theory should be a more risky investment, but with risk comes big rewards. With Gold you are going to be bored aiming for a small increase in wealth in the next decades. With Bitcoin it's uncharted territory, it's an open field.

[asuryan180]

Bitcoin in theory should be a more risky investment, but with risk comes big rewards. With Gold you are going to be bored aiming for a small increase in wealth in the next decades. With Bitcoin it's uncharted territory, it's an open field.

This is a good point you can only make so much with gold and that is not a lot, but when you invest in bitcoin the sky is the limit and of course middle earth is also the limit but that is what makes it interesting to me the fact it can go either way but to an extreme and not just bore you with sideways for years. I would invest 2000 in btc but you are your own man. good luck

[tee-rex]

Europe is rushing into gold so expect a short rise and then a fall, I would put half in silver and half in Bitcoin (silver is low and it should go up at least 3$ an ounce by the next year)

Silver is by far more volatile than gold and subject to market manipulation. Remember the Hunt brothers who tried (but ultimately failed) to corner the world market of silver in 1980? It could actually go as high as 50$ per ounce or fall as low as 10$ (which we are not far off today), or even both.

It's damn low right now, I don't see it dropping any more and at 1000$ you could get 64.5 ounces @ current spot $15.46. If we see a raise in 3$ (which is fair) that could be a 193.5$ increase. Now gold is at 1,155$ an ounce so you could get ALMOST 1 ounce. Gold has dropped from 1375$ this last year and silver has dropped from 22. It doesn't seem to be going much lower on either of them especially since silver production has stopped due to cost and output and use is still up (yes it's volatile) but gold has crashed as well, it's all up to you as they're pretty close in comparison.

In fact, silver didn't come down from 22$ the last year, 22$ was a maximum with an average price around 19$ per ounce. I remember when it went from around 35$ to almost 50$ and then dropped below 20$ within a few months. Such things never happened to gold (yes, it fell from 1900$ to 1130$ but it took a few years to come about).

[funtotry]

Bitcoin in theory should be a more risky investment, but with risk comes big rewards. With Gold you are going to be bored aiming for a small increase in wealth in the next decades. With Bitcoin it's uncharted territory, it's an open field.

Yep exactly. Gold would be more long term, and in the case of an emergency like the money system collapsing then it is viable. Bitcoin can also be used, but we all know how that would work

[ranlo]

Bitcoin in theory should be a more risky investment, but with risk comes big rewards. With Gold you are going to be bored aiming for a small increase in wealth in the next decades. With Bitcoin it's uncharted territory, it's an open field.

Yep exactly. Gold would be more long term, and in the case of an emergency like the money system collapsing then it is viable. Bitcoin can also be used, but we all know how that would work

Keep in mind that gold can't be exploited, either (aside from pyrite, which should be easy enough to determine). While we view Bitcoin as being exploit-free, the truth is that we don't know. Everything is exploit-free... until it's exploited. Look at things like the heartbeat bug in SSL.

[funtotry]

Bitcoin in theory should be a more risky investment, but with risk comes big rewards. With Gold you are going to be bored aiming for a small increase in wealth in the next decades. With Bitcoin it's uncharted territory, it's an open field.

Yep exactly. Gold would be more long term, and in the case of an emergency like the money system collapsing then it is viable. Bitcoin can also be used, but we all know how that would work

Keep in mind that gold can't be exploited, either (aside from pyrite, which should be easy enough to determine). While we view Bitcoin as being exploit-free, the truth is that we don't know. Everything is exploit-free... until it's exploited. Look at things like the heartbeat bug in SSL.

True, since bitcoin is a computer program one day someone could find an exploit and then it would all collapse. Gold is physical and therefore cannot be "hacked" and no one can just randomly print gold.

[picolo]

Bitcoin in theory should be a more risky investment, but with risk comes big rewards. With Gold you are going to be bored aiming for a small increase in wealth in the next decades. With Bitcoin it's uncharted territory, it's an open field.

Yep exactly. Gold would be more long term, and in the case of an emergency like the money system collapsing then it is viable. Bitcoin can also be used, but we all know how that would work

Keep in mind that gold can't be exploited, either (aside from pyrite, which should be easy enough to determine). While we view Bitcoin as being exploit-free, the truth is that we don't know. Everything is exploit-free... until it's exploited. Look at things like the heartbeat bug in SSL.

True, since bitcoin is a computer program one day someone could find an exploit and then it would all collapse. Gold is physical and therefore cannot be "hacked" and no one can just randomly print gold.

Bitcoin is not a computer program but could be destroyed. Gold could theorically be created in a lab for a cheap price.

[ranlo]

Bitcoin in theory should be a more risky investment, but with risk comes big rewards. With Gold you are going to be bored aiming for a small increase in wealth in the next decades. With Bitcoin it's uncharted territory, it's an open field.

Yep exactly. Gold would be more long term, and in the case of an emergency like the money system collapsing then it is viable. Bitcoin can also be used, but we all know how that would work

Keep in mind that gold can't be exploited, either (aside from pyrite, which should be easy enough to determine). While we view Bitcoin as being exploit-free, the truth is that we don't know. Everything is exploit-free... until it's exploited. Look at things like the heartbeat bug in SSL.

True, since bitcoin is a computer program one day someone could find an exploit and then it would all collapse. Gold is physical and therefore cannot be "hacked" and no one can just randomly print gold.

Bitcoin is not a computer program but could be destroyed. Gold could theorically be created in a lab for a cheap price.

There are ways to see that it's fake, though. Just like fake diamonds that are pressurized can be seen. As far as I'm aware, man has never perfectly recreated anything like that before -- any attempts have always brought differences (and that's for materials we CAN recreate).

[MegaFall]

There are ways to see that it's fake, though. Just like fake diamonds that are pressurized can be seen. As far as I'm aware, man has never perfectly recreated anything like that before -- any attempts have always brought differences (and that's for materials we CAN recreate).

Mercury can be turned into Gold through nuclear processes... it's been done before in minute quantities. There's a Mercury isotope that decays into stable gold. The problem with it is that the cost of energy to do the conversion costs more than the amount of gold you end up producing.

[burger_pimp]

gold is safer, bitcoins can go either way  . Buy gold! Or Disney shares!

[funtotry]

gold is safer, bitcoins can go either way  . Buy gold! Or Disney shares!

Well everything can go either way but gold has been around thousands of years and is at its simplest part the best currency we have seen in history. As with any stock it can go up or down but gold is the least likely as it is a physical object and MUCH older.

[MegaFall]

gold is safer, bitcoins can go either way  . Buy gold! Or Disney shares!

That's why you split it up and hedge your investment. 35% BTC, 40% Gold, and 25% Bonds or Stocks will give you a nice diversified approach. Gold will be your rock; that is, your solid foundation. It should not fluctuate more than 10% up or down in a given period. BTC is your volatility play, could swing way down or way up. The stocks/bonds fall right in between, so long as you pick companies with solid 3% - 5% growth (no penny stocks) and decent dividend.


Disclaimer: I'm not a financial advisor, lawyer, or accountant. All the above is my personal opinion. You should consult with an actual advisor before investing.

[Nowi]

Yeah its depend on you, but if I be you, I will buy BTC for 80% of your that money and that 20% to gold, I think you will be more rich with bitcoins then with gold after one year.

[ranlo]

There are ways to see that it's fake, though. Just like fake diamonds that are pressurized can be seen. As far as I'm aware, man has never perfectly recreated anything like that before -- any attempts have always brought differences (and that's for materials we CAN recreate).

Mercury can be turned into Gold through nuclear processes... it's been done before in minute quantities. There's a Mercury isotope that decays into stable gold. The problem with it is that the cost of energy to do the conversion costs more than the amount of gold you end up producing.

Interesting... so it's really like Bitcoin in the sense that it IS possible to exploit/fake... it's just not financially viable. You can do a 51% attack on Bitcoin, but it'll cost way more than you'd get back from doing it.