'Gold Is Superior to Bitcoin,' Say People Who Sell Gold

The founder of GoldMoney.com is upset that Grayscale compared gold unfavorably to cryptocurrencies.

By John Biggs

Jun 5, 2019 at 9:45 p.m. UTC

Updated Sep 13, 2021 at 9:16 a.m. UTC

shutterstock_343993928 — https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/gold-bars-on-nugget-grains-background-343993928?src=p6dKnUIP2tLS5etziLSfHQ-1-39

John Biggs

The folks that sell gold are a bit upset by Grayscale's Drop Gold advertising campaign.

In particular, GoldMoney.com, is going to great lengths to convince the investing public that the yellow metal is "superior" to bitcoin, not the other way around as the Grayscale ads claim.

The precious-metals company has created an infographic and white paper that aim to convince us gold isn't so bad.

GoldMoney.com founder Roy Sebag has quite a lot to say on the matter. His white paper begins by calling out Barry Silbert, founder of Grayscale parent Digital Currency Group:

The DropGold advertorial campaign has, in my personal view, been poorly conceived, and–as I have repeatedly stated via social media–is so preposterous in its nature as to be akin to uttering phrases like “drop Oxygen” or “drop Copper.” In short, I believe this campaign will not age well, and that it runs the risk of ultimately undermining the ideals and objectives of the cryptocurrency community, which, for the most part, are well-meaning in their desire to reorient society towards a return to the principles of sound commodity money which have underscored and amplified the proliferation of human cooperative societies from time immemorial until the very recent past (with Richard Nixon’s historically unprecedented and ostensibly temporary suspension of the Gold standard in 1971). To be even more explicit, I am sympathetic to the broad vision of the cryptocurrency community and feel that Grayscale and Mr. Silbert, through these actions, have made a critical error in judgement that is neither representative of the community nor beneficial to its core objectives.

Sebag goes on to argue that far from being weightless as suggested in the Grayscale ads, bitcoin actually weighs more than gold. After all, it is hosted on heavy servers!

Further, he tells us that gold has implicit utility – as a thing used to create more bitcoin!

"Bitcoin needs gold to exist," writes Sebag. "Gold doesn't need Bitcoin to exist."

While Sebag is splitting hairs here – after all, bitcoin, as a digital asset, is invisible, tasteless, and odorless while gold is a physical object you can wear around your neck – his point is simply that we shouldn't yet discount gold as a valuable asset.

The market, obviously, would agree, with gold trading well above $1,000 an ounce. Just how much we should own as an investment, however, is still a tough call, infographic or no.

Image via Shutterstock

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