Comparing and Contrasting Gold and Bitcoin Standards

Abstract

Chapter 6. As a future monetary standard, should fiat standards collapse, gold would exhibit greater purchasing-power stability than Bitcoin. Gold and Bitcoin supply and demand diagrams from earlier chapters, brought side-by-side, illustrate that Bitcoin’s purchasing power is more volatile in the short run and especially in the long run. Legal obstacles facing gold and Bitcoin as media of exchange are similar. Bitcoin’s main advantage is its greater resistant to government censorship, but the difference is smaller than sometimes claimed. A determined government can drive Bitcoin underground to the point where it is unlikely to serve as a common currency. The policy conclusion is not a blueprint for top-down choice among monetary standards, but a plea to let potential monies compete openly and freely on a legally level playing field.