Gold vs Bitcoin

We all know that any crypto enthusiastic dreams of the day that Bitcoin will take over Gold. Now let's look at some statistics of where both of those stand at in the world today.

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Gold:

• The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that about 244,000 tons of gold had been mined as of Sep. 10, 2023
• There are 32,000 ounces of gold in one ton, and the price of gold per ounce was about $1,919.08 as of the market close on Sep. 8, 2023
• The total value of all gold can be estimated as:( 244,000 tons of gold x 32,000 ounces per ton ) x $1,919.08 per ounce = $14.98 trillion.

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Bitcoin:

• One bitcoin was worth $25,758 as of Sep. 10, 2023
• There are more than 19.48 million bitcoins circulating, giving it a total value of over $500 billion
• The combined value of bitcoin is equivalent to just 0.11% of the world's money
• Bitcoin is worth only about 3.4% of the world's gold supply

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Looking at those statistics and comparing the two, it's very clear that gold is superior and that it is way more used around the globe. Let's not forget about bitcoin's ath in 2021, when its value reached more than $64,000, and giving it a total value of about $1.2 trillion at the time. So that means that at the ath of bitcoin we had about 8% of the world's gold supply.

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If we look at utility, gold has historically been used in many applications, like currency, luxury items, specialized applications in dentistry, electronics, and much more. This cross-functional utility has given gold its ability to maintain value when other asset values fall. Bitcoin is limited in its utility. It is currently only used as a digital currency and a speculative investment. However, there is an emerging financial technology whose concept is to use cryptocurrency for financial transactions called decentralized finance. Bitcoin has utility in this emerging tech as a form of lending, borrowing, and possibly more. It also has the potential to be involved in nearly as many applications as gold but following the same line of thought, it has just as much potential to become useless and invaluable.

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If we look at volatility, bitcoin has historically proven to be subject to the media effect, investor sentiment, regulatory actions, and hype. News from the digital currency sphere could prompt investors to panic and make quick decisions, quickly sending bitcoin's price upward or downward. This volatility is not inherent to gold, making it perhaps a safer asset. In recent years, several alternative cryptocurrencies have been launched which aim to provide more stability than bitcoin, these coins are called stablecoins.

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In conclusion, I see a bright future for bitcoin, it's not like gold will just disappear one day, but it definitely looks like if the trends keep up, and how we keep on reaching new ath, that at one point we will catch up and surpass gold in the process. I really wonder how all those stats will look like in 5, 10 or 20 years from now!

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