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In an op-ed on Yahoo! Finance, Alex Gurevich, a professor of Mathematics and an ex-JPMorgan executive, believes Bitcoin is edging closer to becoming digital gold “with every single day it doesn’t die.”
“Despite the rise and fall of various altcoins and fork considerations, “time” works FOR Bitcoin, not AGAINST it. Every day it doesn’t disappear, it gets one step closer to a permanent status of digital gold,” he went on to state in the op-ed. Taking his readers down memory lane on why there was demand for gold and precious metals, Gurevich stated that precious metals had always been used as a means of exchange for centuries, as they “do not oxidize easily and remain in an uncorrupted form” (hence, retain their value over time).
However, amongst all precious metals, gold is neither the most common nor the rarest. He opined that over the centuries, the middle ground that gold held ended up working to its advantage; it is common enough to be a currency that can be used all over the world, but also not so common that mining can easily disrupt its price.
With these advantages, gold has been able to outlive its competitors, and as such, it ended up gaining worldwide credibility about
Gurevich believed that while Ether is battling to be digital copper, Bitcoin is well on its way to becoming digital gold. This will mean that while the value of Ether will be driven but the demand for tech, that of Bitcoin will be driven by the sole need for it to be a store of liquidity value
On why Bitcoin is specifically the frontrunner in the race to gaining this title, he explained that the advantage of incumbency has favored the currency, and that just like gold did to other precious metals (which might or might not have had better aesthetic advantages, ubiquity, and rarity than it did), Bitcoin is in the process of outlasting its competition.
“Given the historical trading pattern in precious metals, the buy of Bitcoin in 2015 was relatively easy. But now, at 20X (including fork) the early prices, it is a more complicated trading dilemma. Bitcoin may or may not be a “bubble,” but it is important to remember that it did have a major ‘burst’ in 2014 and, even this year, the market has witnessed Bitcoin endure two meaningful corrections.”
Going further to add that “every time it survives and stabilizes, it gets extra gold credibility.”
Gurevich is not the only one who believes that Bitcoin is well on its way to becoming digital gold. In an interview with CNBC, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak called Bitcoin the “only pure digital gold.”
“Only Bitcoin is pure digital gold… and I totally buy into that. All the others tend to give up some of the aspects of Bitcoin. For example, being totally decentralized and having no central control. That’s the first one they have to give up to try to have a business model.”
Wozniak said that while he owns one Bitcoin unit, his ownership is solely to experiment its use as a payment method, and not for him to actually be an investor.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
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