I read this today:
https://www.naturalnews.com/2017-11-08-cryptocurrency-vanishes-user-error-10-reasons-gold-better-than-bitcoin.html
I like Mike Adams, and once upon a time I would have wholeheartedly endorsed what he has written here….but not any more. I went 'all in' on silver and silver futures in 2011 and I got wiped out. I no longer believe in the gold and silver narratives such as 'gold and silver will go to the moon when the petro dollar collapses any day now!' It never seems to happen. Even G. Edward Griffin expressed surprise that the entire debt dollar system hasn't collapsed by now.
I could have bought Bitcoin in 2011 and I'd be a billionaire now, but at the time I believed in what Adams preaches in his article. I even drew pro-silver cartoons such as the one shown here. I thought the dollar would collapse and gold and silver would go up exponentially. Didn't happen.
If such people know gold and silver are set to reach fantastic highs similar to Bitcoin, why all the selling? Many precious metal outfits are hawking gold and silver coins as a safe haven--and that's fine...but again, why are they even selling? Why not wait for those higher prices? Are they being egalitarian in their desire to help the average Joe get rich? I think not.
Just for grins, I’ll see if I can counter each of his arguments:
#1) Gold has been around for over 13 billion years and is a fundamental element of the cosmos. Bitcoin has existed fewer than 13 years and hasn’t even come close to standing the test of time.
The Internet has been around for about 50 years and only used by the general populace for about 30 years. The Internet is an unprecedented achievement that has fundamentally changed the way humans interact with each other. It has had more impact and is perhaps a more important game changer than was the Gutenberg press. It’s only natural that money adapts to the way humans interact with each other economically. So his argument is specious. He’s overreaching here, because humans have only been on the Earth for a short amount of time—the 13 billion years thing is irrelevant. Then he tosses in, ‘Or maybe you don’t understand the Table of Elements' line as a needless insult.
#2) Unlike Bitcoin, gold cannot be created or destroyed by human beings.
Human beings can destroy themselves into extinction and render gold worthless. Human beings may not be able to create gold, but they DO create the desire for gold because of its natural qualities of permanence, malleability, rarity and beauty. Bitcoin resides in the memory of computer banks. Humans determine its value of gold in the memory of their minds, and can also control or destroy its value. Look at the videos in which Mark Dice offered people a gold coin for $20. There were no takers. Their minds are already changed. Look at the paper shorts that rule gold and silver. The modern perception of gold is that it’s an archaic, cumbersome form of money that is difficult and expensive to store and offers no interest. Sure, there have been times when gold and silver had bubble-like runs in the modern era, but they were very few, very short, and the prices always collapsed back into a bear or stagnant market.
#3) When the power grid goes down, gold is still gold. But Bitcoin becomes worthless.
It depends on how long the grid goes down. If it goes down permanently, then Bitcoin will be worthless. That doesn’t necessarily mean gold and silver will become worth much more. The priorities would be fuel, food, ammo, medicine and so forth. Ammo, cigarettes or those small liquor bottles may make a better medium of exchange than gold.
#4) Physical gold cannot be stolen through the internet
But it can be stolen, lost, or confiscated by the government.
#5) The value of any single Bitcoin depends on the entire Bitcoin infrastructure continuing to operate
The value of any single NYSE stock depends on the continued operation of that infrastructure, too. The ATMs depend on the grid, too—not just Bitcoin. Money transactions are increasingly taking place electronically. The day of putting a silver dollar into an old fashioned cash register and getting a hand written receipt are over. Nowadays cards are swiped into electronic gadgetry. US debt dollars are created by a keystroke. Too bad the infrastructure at the Fed isn’t wiped out and they go away, too.
#6) When you try to burn gold, you just get melted gold. When you burn Bitcoin wallets, you lose all your Bitcoins.
This argument is kind of a howler and holds no water. He’s comparing golden apples with digital oranges. Burn your wallet and your credit cards and cash are destroyed, too. Burn down your uninsured house and you'll also lose everything. You can’t burn a Bitcoin; that’s part of it’s advantage. Everything is backed up supposedly.
#7) Owning gold is truly anonymous. Your gold cannot be detected, and if you move it around, nobody else knows.
Until you cash in that gold for good ‘ol debt slave bucks. Then the IRS can perhaps detect it if the amount is substantial. Unless you want to carry around a large amount of cash, they’ll want to know where that $100k came from when you deposit your gold sale winnings into a bank account. Especially if one buys gold online. Records are kept. Try traveling with a large amount of cash and the police will confiscate it as ‘drug money.’ Gold can get confiscated at airports. Unless the gold owner lives in Shangri-La, he’s subject to the same problems all non-anonymous people have.
#8) Gold has practical industrial, medical and scientific applications that grant it inherent value. Bitcoin can be replaced tomorrow by a better cryptocurrency.
Gold has far less practical value than silver. Mostly, gold is old fashioned money and a store of value. Or jewelry. Bitcoin has, in effect, replaced gold as a medium of quick exchange and far more practical when paying people at a distance. J’ever try to mail people gold or silver? I have and it’s a big pain. It’s heavy. It must be insured. Easily lost or stolen, etc. He says Etherium is better, but we know what happened there. Crypto currency is in its infancy and will have to sort itself out over time. Also, he confuses owning Bitcoin with mining. You can buy Bitcoin and trade it without having to set up super computers to mine it. Gold requires a ridiculous amount of energy in its own mining process. That’s part of what makes it valuable. Same with Bitcoin. The more time and expense required to mine it only means much higher prices for it.
#9) Gold is universally recognized and accepted as valuable in every culture on our planet. Bitcoin is unrecognizable to most humans living today.
This is somewhat equivalent to the ‘ad populum’ argumentative fallacy. That is, since more people know about gold and silver than they do Bitcoin, it must mean that Bitcoin is not tenable? What it suggests to me is that it has barely scratched the surface. His argument does not obviate the fact that gold and silver prices have remained stagnant for the past 6 years, while Bitcoin has gone from a few cents to $7,000 in the same time period. It is snowballing and the more people find out about it, the more likelihood of higher prices.
#10) Most people buy gold to protect value, yet most people buying Bitcoin today are speculating on a “get rich quick” scheme that will blow up in their faces.
Probably true for the time being, but most people who bought silver during its ‘mania’ stage expected much higher prices. Instead, those ’stackers' who bought high are still stuck and steaming. I remember there were many shills coming out of the woodwork and claiming silver would go to $1,000 per ounce or higher. So sure—let’s talk about ‘protecting’ value. Buying a gold coin has been proven to do that, but many want a better return on the dollars they earn. That’s human nature. Hence, both the stock market and Bitcoin continue to make new highs, while precious metals continue to languish.
--Ben Garrison
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