By CCN: Long before bitcoin rocketed past the price of gold in March 2017, crypto believers had touted BTC’s ability to replace gold in an increasingly digital world. Goldbugs, on the other hand, maintain that no technology can ever replace the yellow metal.
Bitcoin is ‘Corrupted’ While Gold Is a ‘Creation of God’
Speaking in an interview with Kitco News, Chris Mancini, an analyst at Gabelli Gold Funds, discussed the safe-haven status of bitcoin. He argued that the “corrupted” asset could never replace gold.
“The big picture is that bitcoin has been corrupted because it is a creation of man and gold cannot be corrupted because it is a creation of God.”
Bitcoin and gold prices converge for the first time in 2017 | Source: American Bullion, Inc
What constitutes corruption? Cryptocurrency hard forks like bitcoin cash (BCH) and bitcoin gold (BTG).
Mancini lambasted these forks as crazy because developers effectively create one piece of a cryptocurrency off another cryptocurrency. In contrast, you’ll never buy a gold coin, hide it in your sock drawer, and one day discover two coins lying there.
Gabelli Goldbug Triggers Crypto Twitter Backlash
Mancini’s remarks triggered some heated Twitter responses from the cryptocurrency community.
Max Keiser, an outspoken crypto advocate, argued that BTC is “every bit a creation of God.”
He said:
“BTC mines our collective unconscious per a self-aware protocol with its roots going back to the origins of our universe”
Disagree. #Bitcoin is every bit a creation of God.
BTC mines our collective unconscious per a self-aware protocol with its roots going back to the origins of our universe. #fact https://t.co/HVAKbtB6iu
— Max Keiser, tweet poet. (@maxkeiser) June 5, 2019
Others seethed at the implication that the financial elites had no power to corrupt gold.
Sorry, this is an embarrassing halfwit comparison. On the contrary, its corrupted men who can easily fake your #Gold, mishandle, mislabel, steal or confiscate it. Bitcoin is a much better protection from corrupted men https://t.co/gh2IXjqfOH
— TradersApprentice (@Tony88981) June 5, 2019
Bitcoin is a Store of Value, But Central Banks Won’t Buy It
Still, Mancini did concede that bitcoin is a store of value and “the kind of thing that can’t necessarily be replicated in its current form.”
That said, he doesn’t believe global central banks are going to buy bitcoin and hold it in reserve. Gold will be the only alternative asset they hoard in their vaults, he believes.
