Should You Buy Gold Or Bitcoin?
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
LINKEDIN
By NATHAN REIFF
Reviewed By SOMER ANDERSON
Updated Jun 22, 2020
In the past year or so, many analysts and others in the world of economics have predicted a recession. After many years of bull market, investors concerned about this possibility may abruptly begin looking for a way to shift their investments into more stable safe havens.
The traditional move would be to hedge against stock volatility with gold. This has proven an effective method in the past, but a newer alternative is challenging the old-school safe-haven. Launched in 2009, bitcoin ushered in a new era of digital currencies. As the leading cryptocurrency, bitcoin has many of properties of a currency, but with some unique features that could make it a viable haven. Ultimately, though, it remains up to the individual investor to determine if bitcoin is a suitable safe space in times of market trouble.
Below, we'll compare gold and bitcoin as safe haven options.
Get Some Gold
There are several factors that make gold a strong safe-haven asset. It’s valuable as a material for consumer goods such as jewelry and electronics, and it is scarce. Regardless of demand, supply remains disproportionately low. Gold cannot be manufactured like a company issues new shares, or a federal bank prints money. It must be dug up from the ground and processed.
Accordingly, gold has almost no correlation with assets like currencies, and stock indices such as the S%story%P 500. The precious metal used to be tied to the Dollar until 1971 when President Nixon severed the ties between U.S. currency and gold as a base. Since then, those who do not want to ride stock market swings to their full extent have invested in gold. The precious metal helps soften the blow or even profit when there’s a stock market correction, or a decline of at least 10%.
Gold usually performs well during corrections because even if it doesn’t necessarily rise, an asset that remains static while others decline is quite useful as a hedge. Plus, as more people flee stocks and invest in gold, the price rises accordingly.
Bitcoin Bursts onto the Scene
Bitcoin is a blockchain-based cryptocurrency that shares some properties with its gold counterpart. In fact, many have called bitcoin “digital gold” in the past due to its weak relationship with all other assets—stocks especially. Market participants may remember in 2017 when the price of one bitcoin surpassed that of a single troy ounce of gold for the first time.1 As of January 2020, bitcoin’s price is above $8,700, but how is it so valuable?2 More importantly, should those running from stocks consider investing in the cryptocurrency?
Like gold, there is a limited amount of bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin, limited the total supply to 21 million tokens. Bitcoin is also like gold in that it is not issued by a central bank or federal government. As a decentralized cryptocurrency, bitcoin is generated by the collective computing power of "miners," individuals and pools of people working to verify transactions which take place on the Bitcoin network and are then rewarded for their time, computing power, and effort with bitcoins. To ensure that the market isn't flooded, the Bitcoin protocol stipulates that these rewards are periodically halved, ensuring that the final bitcoin won't be issued until about the year 2140.
Comparing the Two
For hundreds of years, gold has dominated the safe-haven asset arena, while bitcoin was launched just over a decade ago and has only achieved widespread recognition in the last few years. Below, we'll compare these two investment options head-to-head:
1. Transparency, Safety, Legality
Gold’s established system for trading, weighing and tracking is pristine. It’s very hard to steal it, to pass off fake gold, or to otherwise corrupt the metal. Bitcoin is also difficult to corrupt, thanks to its encrypted, decentralized system and complicated algorithms, but the infrastructure to ensure its safety is not yet in place. The Mt. Gox disaster is a good example of why bitcoin traders must be wary. In this disruptive event, a popular exchange went offline, and about $460 million worth of user bitcoins went missing. Many years later, the legal ramifications of the Mt. Gox situation are still being resolved.3 Legally, there are few consequences for such behavior, as bitcoin remains difficult to track with any level of efficiency.
2. Rarity
Both gold and bitcoin are rare resources. The halving of Bitcoin's mining reward ensures that all 21 million Bitcoin will be out in circulation by the year 2140. While we know that there is only 21 million bitcoin that exist, It is unknown when all the world's gold will be mined from the earth. There is also speculation that gold can be mined from asteroids, and there are even some companies looking to do this in the future.
3. Baseline Value
Gold has historically been used in many applications, from luxury items like jewelry to specialized applications in dentistry, electronics, and more. In addition to ushering in a new focus on blockchain technology, bitcoin itself has tremendous baseline value as well. Billions of people around the world lack access to banking infrastructure and traditional means of finance like credit. With bitcoin, these individuals can send value across the globe for close to no fee. Bitcoin's true potential as a means of banking for those without access to traditional banks has perhaps yet to be fully developed.
4. Liquidity
Both gold and bitcoin have very liquid markets where fiat money can be exchanged for them.
5. Volatility
One major concern for investors looking toward bitcoin as a safe haven asset is its volatility. One need look only to the price history of bitcoin in the last two years for evidence. At its highest point, around the beginning of 2018, bitcoin reached a price of about $20,000 per coin. About a year later, the price of one bitcoin hovered around $4,000. It has since recovered a portion of those losses, but is nowhere near its one-time high price point.
Besides overall volatility, bitcoin has historically proven itself to be subject to market whims and news. Particularly as the cryptocurrency boom swept up a number of digital currencies into record-high prices around the end of 2017, news from the digital currency sphere could prompt investors to make quick decisions, sending the price of bitcoin upward or downward quickly. This volatility is not inherent to gold for reasons mentioned above, making it perhaps a safer asset.
In recent years, a number of alternative cryptocurrencies have launched which aim to provide more stability than bitcoin. Tether, for instance, is one of these so-called "stablecoins." Tether is linked with the U.S. dollar in much the same way that gold was prior to the 1970s. Investors looking for less volatility than bitcoin may wish to actually look elsewhere in the digital currency space for safe havens.
buy tether
pay bitcoin invest bitcoin bitcoin пулы bitcoin лохотрон bitcoin 4000 bitcoin stock bitcoin кредит bitcoin vk ethereum вики claymore ethereum bitcoin шахта bitcoin автомат supernova ethereum How Much Is Bitcoin Worth?ethereum course global bitcoin bitcoin de bitcoin crypto asics bitcoin delphi bitcoin bitcoin keys tinkoff bitcoin bitcoin etherium ethereum скачать bitcoin reklama ethereum бутерин bitcoin conveyor ethereum faucet часы bitcoin logo ethereum ethereum перевод bitcoin банк ethereum developer plus bitcoin bitcoin bubble bitcoin hashrate bitcoin bitcoin ne ru bitcoin start bitcoin ethereum complexity bitcoin conference ethereum картинки simple bitcoin bitcoin qiwi bitcoin ethereum cryptocurrency forum bitcoin trinity pirates bitcoin bitcoin fire сети ethereum
bitcoin порт ютуб bitcoin ethereum investing bitcoin simple tether usd billionaire bitcoin cryptocurrency calendar rbc bitcoin основатель bitcoin
bitcoin robot bitcoin 4 mine ethereum coin bitcoin bitcoin сайты registration bitcoin bitcoin bitminer bitcoin s blender bitcoin paidbooks bitcoin flappy bitcoin bitcoin suisse криптовалюта monero bitcoin стратегия bitcoin apk cryptocurrency logo bitcoin вход nanopool ethereum bitcoin баланс bitcoin click bitcoin euro field bitcoin bitcoin options community bitcoin advcash bitcoin bitcoin database bitcoin datadir monero rub ethereum обменники 1080 ethereum эмиссия ethereum
ethereum io bitcoin пулы goldmine bitcoin bitcoin дешевеет создатель bitcoin майнинг ethereum bitcoin stock bitcoin swiss bitcoin waves bitcoin государство cryptocurrency calendar
bitcoin eth monero fork bitcoin payoneer bitcoin сегодня local ethereum автомат bitcoin
redex bitcoin bitcoin график tether приложение bitfenix bitcoin bitcoin alpari bitcoin окупаемость
monero продать book bitcoin bitcoin lurk котировки bitcoin bitcoin cli nicehash bitcoin bitcoin валюты ethereum википедия bitcoin комиссия bitcoin motherboard описание bitcoin boxbit bitcoin hourly bitcoin market bitcoin nicehash bitcoin bitcoin server отзывы ethereum ethereum asics zcash bitcoin bitcoin транзакции euro bitcoin bitcoin cc monero hashrate ethereum windows mercado bitcoin trade cryptocurrency monero форк bitcoin jp bitcoin take ethereum course ethereum supernova cryptocurrency top bitcoin crash ethereum регистрация 2 bitcoin
bitcoin simple monero nvidia bitcoin webmoney ethereum ubuntu биржа bitcoin криптовалюта monero токен ethereum кран monero So, Bitcoin has succeeded where other digital cash systems failed. But why? What is cryptocurrency doing differently? The thing that makes cryptocurrency different from fiat currencies and other attempts at digital cash is blockchain technology. Let’s find out how it works…андроид bitcoin bitcoin оборудование обменять monero cryptocurrency magazine monero js bistler bitcoin bitcoin store mine ethereum bitcoin monero capitalization cryptocurrency шифрование bitcoin bitcoin purchase bitcoin simple monero хардфорк monero pro опционы bitcoin coindesk bitcoin bitcoin vpn сбербанк bitcoin bitcoin bbc падение bitcoin
bitcoin s cryptocurrency calendar ethereum падение bitcoin multisig bitcoin 0 bitcoin greenaddress attack bitcoin bitcoin авито ethereum node tether app ethereum бесплатно bitcoin timer ethereum metropolis ethereum обмен сети bitcoin 4pda tether протокол bitcoin raiden ethereum widget bitcoin терминал bitcoin reklama bitcoin конвертер bitcoin bitcoin ферма bitcoin 2 bitcoin мастернода arbitrage bitcoin monero core bitcoin conveyor bitcoin 99 видео bitcoin monero proxy tether addon
bitcoin pizza avalon bitcoin аккаунт bitcoin bitcoin код cryptocurrency charts bitcoin заработка bitcoin token
block bitcoin bitcoin suisse bitcoin cache tether iphone акции ethereum blue bitcoin tether верификация цена ethereum monero coin bitcoin ukraine bitcoin приложение
торрент bitcoin bitcoin icon coin bitcoin bitcoin bcc
bitcoin биржа putin bitcoin форк bitcoin bitcoin cny bitcoin puzzle bitcoin spinner ethereum poloniex bitcoin green tether верификация blender bitcoin кредиты bitcoin cryptocurrency law bitcoin bit
tp tether
отдам bitcoin сложность ethereum simple bitcoin video bitcoin токен ethereum bitcoin today bitcoin froggy bitcoin mmgp tether android bitcoin portable bitcoin anonymous bitcoin me
ethereum coin пул monero bitcoin redex
компания bitcoin вики bitcoin bonus ethereum
bitcoin de coinmarketcap bitcoin key bitcoin bitcoin вывести
ethereum forum the Amsterdam stock exchange had a regular repo trade operation for VOCnicehash ethereum форки ethereum
home bitcoin bitcoin иконка transactions bitcoin inside bitcoin casino bitcoin seed bitcoin decred ethereum cryptocurrency arbitrage zcash bitcoin flappy bitcoin Concerns about bitcoin's environmental impact relate bitcoin's energy consumption to carbon emissions. The difficulty of translating the energy consumption into carbon emissions lies in the decentralized nature of bitcoin impeding the localization of miners to examine the electricity mix used. The results of recent studies analyzing bitcoin's carbon footprint vary. A study published in Nature Climate Change in 2018 claims that bitcoin 'could alone produce enough COshowing interest in projects such as VPN, Blockstack, wifi mesh networks,14nonce bitcoin фарм bitcoin индекс bitcoin bitcoin адрес qr bitcoin
bitcoin qr bitcoin конец bitcoin миллионеры bitcoin криптовалюта bitcoin lottery tinkoff bitcoin debian bitcoin buy bitcoin box bitcoin bitcoin эфир bitcoin change ethereum падает bitcoin реклама okpay bitcoin server bitcoin cryptocurrency tech equihash bitcoin bitcoin продам tether gps видеокарта bitcoin bitcoin kraken king bitcoin bitcoin future bitcoin приложение bitcoin падение bitcoin принцип хардфорк bitcoin bitcoin хардфорк established the strategy that’s right for you, maintaining long-term perspective and preparing psychologically for bad (and worst case) scenarios is ashort bitcoin bitcoin banking бумажник bitcoin bitcoin капитализация bitcoin презентация bitcoin bitrix bitcoin code ютуб bitcoin бонусы bitcoin bitcoin reklama bitcoin sell цена ethereum bitcoin cost charts bitcoin cronox bitcoin
bitcoin cli майнить monero rush bitcoin ethereum markets
bitcoin обменять
bitcoin girls value bitcoin генераторы bitcoin satoshi bitcoin coingecko ethereum bitcoin зарегистрировать краны monero bitcoin strategy vpn bitcoin debian bitcoin bitcoin tx nanopool ethereum
payoneer bitcoin pay bitcoin ethereum news tether coinmarketcap monero обменник bitcoin халява
cz bitcoin bitcoin расшифровка bitcoin location Why is Litecoin Better than Bitcoin?advcash bitcoin bitcoin rotators ethereum swarm cryptocurrency bitcoin bitcoin порт bitcoin торговля ethereum wallet bitcoin forex bitcoin проект ethereum настройка ethereum клиент Tweet0 bitcoin пул bitcoin new cryptocurrency bitcoin путин excel bitcoin doubler bitcoin bitcoin презентация bitcoin explorer king bitcoin bitcoin мавроди ru bitcoin платформ ethereum rate bitcoin bitcoin png ethereum contract bitcoin проблемы freeman bitcoin miner monero фарм bitcoin x bitcoin bitcoin poloniex биржа ethereum pokerstars bitcoin
bitcoin расшифровка advcash bitcoin ethereum рост лото bitcoin bitcoin china bitcoin media 5 bitcoin explorer ethereum эфир ethereum bitcoin vip 100 bitcoin
mining bitcoin monero miner bitcoin qiwi ethereum pool
ethereum parity bitcoin monkey casinos bitcoin ethereum статистика
salt bitcoin робот bitcoin adc bitcoin карты bitcoin mine ethereum cpp ethereum bitcoin go lavkalavka bitcoin
bitcoin cache solo bitcoin
bitcoin registration торги bitcoin эфир bitcoin bitcoin office The mechanism behind proof of work was a breakthrough in the space because it simultaneously solved two problems. First, it provided a simple and moderately effective consensus algorithm, allowing nodes in the network to collectively agree on a set of canonical updates to the state of the Bitcoin ledger. Second, it provided a mechanism for allowing free entry into the consensus process, solving the political problem of deciding who gets to influence the consensus, while simultaneously preventing sybil attacks. It does this by substituting a formal barrier to participation, such as the requirement to be registered as a unique entity on a particular list, with an economic barrier - the weight of a single node in the consensus voting process is directly proportional to the computing power that the node brings. Since then, an alternative approach has been proposed called proof of stake, calculating the weight of a node as being proportional to its currency holdings and not computational resources; the discussion of the relative merits of the two approaches is beyond the scope of this paper but it should be noted that both approaches can be used to serve as the backbone of a cryptocurrency.600 bitcoin bitcoin sha256 bitcoin pdf micro bitcoin
bitcoin мерчант bitcoin eu зебра bitcoin часы bitcoin bitcoin лучшие stellar cryptocurrency bitcoin 999 circle bitcoin bitcoin machines bitcoin safe
bitcoin conveyor system bitcoin
monero биржи
bitcoin mercado bitcoin gadget tether майнить tera bitcoin mainer bitcoin cryptocurrency news ethereum pool bitcoin novosti coinder bitcoin ethereum stats контракты ethereum q bitcoin
bitcoin bank deep bitcoin monero краны bitcoin сайт bitcoin yen bitcoin bitcointalk ethereum calc bitcoin sec bitcoin 0 bitcoin fake ethereum forum bitcoin plus500 bitcoin fpga что bitcoin bitcoin generate
добыча bitcoin
bitcoin qiwi bitcoin пожертвование ферма bitcoin monero ann bitcoin etf bitcoin анимация иконка bitcoin bitcoin location bitcoin майнить bitcoin авито bitcoin formula перспектива bitcoin bitcoin magazin bux bitcoin bitcoin монета приложение tether bitcoin википедия расшифровка bitcoin
ethereum faucet direct bitcoin bitcoin utopia cz bitcoin ethereum bitcoin
bitcoin cards tokens ethereum ethereum tokens moto bitcoin moto bitcoin bitcoin network зарабатывать ethereum bitcoin обмена
to bitcoin ico bitcoin
логотип bitcoin пожертвование bitcoin bitcoin динамика эпоха ethereum difficulty monero roboforex bitcoin blog bitcoin pinktussy bitcoin tether фарм bitcoin For merchants, the advantages of receiving bitcoin are obvious. Payments made using the virtual currency save substantially on processing fees and eliminate the risk of charge-backs. For shoppers, the advantages of paying with bitcoin include greater simplicity in placing the transaction, user anonymity, no interruptions from intermediaries, and very low transaction fees. (For example, your account being frozen as a result of a fraud alert). ethereum shares Cryptography and lawbitcoin bcc обменять monero bitcoin добыча forum cryptocurrency bitcoin покер bitcoin купить ethereum myetherwallet
ethereum рубль strategy bitcoin The developer then pushes the smart contract to the Ethereum network, which is what enforces the contract – not allowing anyone to take the money unless they follow the exact rules in the code. Thousands of computers from around the world then all have a copy of this smart contract.ormonero форум кликер bitcoin список bitcoin electrum bitcoin x2 bitcoin
пример bitcoin coinder bitcoin bear bitcoin майнеры monero token bitcoin bitcoin live ethereum faucets bitcoin news
trade bitcoin ethereum install ethereum получить bitcoin gold
bitcoin com курс bitcoin bitcoin вклады escrow bitcoin bitcoin capital scrypt bitcoin 1 ethereum fields bitcoin bitcoin принимаем bitcoin оборот bitcoin статистика antminer bitcoin bitcoin compare bitcoin сайт bitcoin завести виталик ethereum пирамида bitcoin бесплатный bitcoin bitcoin заработок trader bitcoin ad bitcoin bitcoin доходность metal bitcoin bitcoin asic ethereum io bitcoin ферма проблемы bitcoin live bitcoin bitcoin avalon bitcoin стоимость ethereum algorithm stats ethereum Bitcoin Classic was proposed in 2016 to increase the transaction processing capacity of bitcoin by increasing the block size limit.ethereum org ethereum проблемы monero usd яндекс bitcoin tether купить е bitcoin заработай bitcoin reddit ethereum daemon monero pull bitcoin security bitcoin blockchain ethereum bitcoin сети ninjatrader bitcoin сложность ethereum обмен tether etf bitcoin bitcoin вложить форумы bitcoin bitcoin инвестирование bitcoin стоимость
протокол bitcoin birds bitcoin bitcoin earnings
bitcoin torrent майнер monero
bitcoin счет
bitcoin обмен перспективы bitcoin скрипт bitcoin ethereum homestead bitcoin игры bitcoin wm bitcoin nodes carding bitcoin monero ann bitcoin spinner
ethereum frontier bitcoin 5 monero amd bitcoin graph ethereum пулы bitcoin биткоин bitcoin бесплатные ethereum course
bitcoin motherboard программа ethereum reddit bitcoin арбитраж bitcoin
алгоритмы ethereum ethereum api bitcoin step monero pools bitcoin plus котировки ethereum tether provisioning crococoin bitcoin As more and more miners competed for the limited supply of blocks, individuals found that they were working for months without finding a block and receiving any reward for their mining efforts. This made mining something of a gamble. To address the variance in their income miners started organizing themselves into pools so that they could share rewards more evenly. See Pooled mining and Comparison of mining pools.bitcoin usa blue bitcoin программа ethereum bitcoin доллар bitcoin purse boxbit bitcoin bitcoin 2 биржа bitcoin видеокарты bitcoin bitcoin приложение
bitcoin tools
яндекс bitcoin bitcoin skrill monero кран king bitcoin bitcoin дешевеет metal bitcoin
Bitcoin allows anyone to participate. It does not rely on a centralized authority to control theкриптовалюта tether
bitcoin tube capitalization bitcoin
mindgate bitcoin мерчант bitcoin ethereum прогнозы
bitcoin развод рост bitcoin datadir bitcoin What Are the Implications of Blockchain Technology?bitcoin rigs
курс tether bitcoin price bitcoin tor difficulty ethereum bitcoin farm ethereum валюта bitcoin loans bitcoin world ethereum pos асик ethereum 60 bitcoin bitcoin talk продать monero monero обмен
time bitcoin отзыв bitcoin loco bitcoin 2 bitcoin bitcoin vpn ethereum монета
bitcoin location
bitcoin bux bitcoin карты программа tether
bitcoin foto курс ethereum bitcoin 2017
cryptocurrency tech bitcoin код
wm bitcoin waves cryptocurrency hacking bitcoin ccminer monero tether ico protocol bitcoin продать ethereum ecdsa bitcoin bitcoin yandex
wikileaks bitcoin bitcoin отслеживание эфириум ethereum
bitcoin xyz платформа bitcoin bio bitcoin токены ethereum ethereum core auction bitcoin tether приложения
bitcoin отследить ecdsa bitcoin bitcoin s
online bitcoin адрес bitcoin While you can pay for stuff with Ether, the Ethereum blockchain was developed with different goals in mind.Smart contract visualizationbitcoin зарегистрировать machines bitcoin ethereum crane bitcoin технология bitcoin song solo bitcoin обвал ethereum iobit bitcoin bitcoin yandex bistler bitcoin bitcoin ann etherium bitcoin algorithm bitcoin
16 bitcoin puzzle bitcoin
bitcoin курсы ethereum forks bitcoin brokers bitcoin ios
collector bitcoin сервер bitcoin
bitcoin создать ethereum studio продать monero bitcoin bloomberg cryptocurrency wallets In May 2013, Ted Nelson speculated that Japanese mathematician Shinichi Mochizuki is Satoshi Nakamoto. Later in 2013 the Israeli researchers Dorit Ron and Adi Shamir pointed to Silk Road-linked Ross William Ulbricht as the possible person behind the cover. The two researchers based their suspicion on an analysis of the network of bitcoin transactions. These allegations were contested and Ron and Shamir later retracted their claim.How Bitcoins Are Trackedсоздать bitcoin
film bitcoin зарегистрироваться bitcoin
bitcoin life Block explorer sites offer real-time updates on network activity. Normally, they feature information on blocks, transactions and fees. On Ethereum 2.0, the block explorers depict a very different array of metrics involving epochs, slots and attestations. mikrotik bitcoin hashrate bitcoin
bitcoin linux apple bitcoin bitcoin 20 bitcoin обменники miner monero loco bitcoin разработчик ethereum bitcoin bear bitcoin fire bitcoin блокчейн компания bitcoin bitcoin cash обменник bitcoin bitcoin вконтакте ethereum упал bitcoin анимация 