Could Cryptocurrencies Become as Reliable as Gold?

The respective prices of gold and Bitcoin (BTC) hit record highs this month, with the precious metal valued as high as $2,222 per ounce last week and the cryptocurrency rose above $70,000 per token this Monday.

The origins of the March gold and Bitcoin price surge may be related to the “perceived value of scarcity” of both, said Paul Goncharoff, chief manager of consulting firm Goncharoff LLC.

During an interview with Sputnik, Goncharoff pointed out that gold has been a “secure store of value” for thousands of years, a costly and “increasingly difficult” to obtain one.

Bitcoin, meanwhile, is “the first true cryptocurrency” whose amount will never exceed 21 million tokens, about 19,660,000 of which have already been mined.

“Once 21 million is achieved, that is it, no more new BTC appearing ever. How the real-time markets will respond should be an interesting study, and I am pretty sure there will be not one speculative ebb and surge related to BTC still to come,” Goncharoff explained.

Yet while gold has long acquired a reputation as a safe investment in troubled times, the “cryptocurrency world is still developing, albeit very rapidly,” he noted.

According to Goncharoff, there are essentially two factors from which the perception of Bitcoin being “a haven similar to gold” stems.

“One is its finite supply that I just mentioned, and the other is that ideally it is trustless, and as such protected against the political/economic whims of centralized authorities such as governments, central banks, and the like,” he elaborated. “It is felt by many to be the digital equivalent of gold, and much more efficient to hold and transfer as needed, being always controlled by the individual with the e-wallet, not a bank.”

It still remains to be seen whether Bitcoin is going to become an asset as reliable as gold, Goncharoff observed, recalling how one “rather down-on-life developer” joked previously that a major worldwide electromagnetic pulse could wipe out digital cryptocurrencies whereas gold “will always remain.”

“The feeling of security is important, and as history has shown time and again, things always change. Governments, empires, banks, and even financial systems,” Goncharoff mused. “Cryptocurrencies have all the ingredients of a haven as they are decentralized and move freely, yet there still are risks, and these imply volatility, and frankly the market depth and liquidity while improving daily are still somewhat shallow.”

He also suggested that attempts by centralized governments to “regulate and control what was created and developed to be decentralized and controlled only by supply and demand forces” will result in an equally powerful pushback.

“The more regulated and restricted traditional finance and currencies become, the more cryptocurrencies are seen as attractive, albeit risky, alternatives. Today we are seeing this begin to play out. This is a test for time,” Goncharoff said.