Buterin says crypto is a better bet than gold

Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin believes that crypto is a better asset to hold than gold, adding that it already has more adoption than a physical asset.

Gold is incredibly inconvenient. It’s difficult to use, particularly when transacting with untrusted parties. It doesn’t support safe storage options like multisig. At this point, gold has less adoption than crypto, so crypto is the better bet.

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) October 26, 2022

Buterin made the statement in response to Zach Weinersmith saying that people should buy gold over Bitcoin (BTC) since it already fulfills crypto advocates’ claim that they don’t want a centralized authority for money.

Vitalik pointed out that gold is very inconvenient and difficult to use, especially when trading with an untrusted party, and has no safe storage option where multiple people can control access like multisig crypto wallets. Buterin said:

“At this point, gold has less adoption than crypto, so crypto is the better bet.”

This is not the first time Vitalik has said crypto is better than gold. In 2018, he tweeted that Bitcoin is better than gold as a store of value both individually and socially.

“I harp on Bitcoin PoW mining wrecking the environment a lot, but gold is worse.”

He added.

Uniswap founder Hayden Adam supported Buterin’s view, adding that “gold also has the risk of huge centrally controlled inflation due to asteroid mining.”

For over a decade, investors have argued about which asset is better — gold or crypto. However, while the current market downturn has shown that crypto does not live up to the claim of a hedge against inflation, gold has also dropped in value year-to-date.

Meanwhile, the broader adoption of cryptocurrencies also means that crypto is gradually eating into gold’s market cap as more investors see Bitcoin as a store of value, despite its poor performance this year.

This is evident in the trading volume between Bitcoin and the British pound following the ill-fated mini-budget by former Prime Minister Liz Truss. With the Pound Sterling crashing, the trading volume between BTC and GBP rose 233% in September.