Throughout the debate, Schiff stated that “in actuality, Bitcoin and gold have absolutely nothing in common” as gold has worth due to its metallic properties while Bitcoin is only a “giant pump and dump. ”
Gold proponent and crypto skeptic Peter Schiff has been crowned the winner of a debate on whether gold is a superior store of value to Bitcoin.
Schiff was going through off against Skybridge founder and former politician Anthony Scaramucci in a debate hosted by Intelligence Squared on Aug 25.
Before the gold vs Bitcoin debate began, a poll scored 38% of the online audience in favor of the precious metal, 26% for BTC and 35% as undecided. Schiff was able to swing a significant number to the precious metal by the end, with last results tallying in at 51% for gold, 32% for BTC and 17% undecided.
Scaramucci kicked things off by asserting that BTC’s value is derived from its network which enables peer-to-peer transactions without a third party. He also suggested that BTC has an edge over gold because of its scarcity and digital properties:
“I think this cryptocurrency revolution and Bitcoin particularly, due to its scarcity, goes to transcend gold. It’s extra transportable, it’s impregnable when it comes to the transaction over the blockchain and it is being adopted fairly quickly.”
“A results of which the costs are going to go lots larger,” he added.
In response, Schiff stated that “in actuality, Bitcoin and gold have completely nothing infrequent” as he argued that Bitcoin is marketed like gold, but doesn’t possess any of the “metallic properties,“ that give gold value.
“Part of the marketing fraud is to try to portray Bitcoin as gold, gold 2.0, digital gold. I mean Bitcoin itself is all the time displayed as a coin, and the color is gold, and you place like a “B” on it. However it’s not a coin, it’s only a digital string of numbers, it does not have any substance,” he said.
He argued that there is a difference between “price and value”, with gold’s value being determined by real-world use instances, whereas BTC doesn’t have tangible backing in the actual world:
“In 100 years, in a 1,000 years, the gold that I’m storing today will be melted down and utilized in electronics or utilized in jewellery, or for no matter new makes use of have been invented that don’t even exist today.”
Throughout the debate, the crypto skeptic described BTC as a “Ponzi scheme,” a “giant pump and dump” and “tulip mania.” Schiff is also unfazed by the rising price of the asset, as he believes that late adopters of BTC are being stepped gradually dumped on by whales who got in early.
“In my thoughts, it’s a large pump and dump, the place the blokes that obtained in relatively early are constantly attempting to pump up the market in an effort to generate a lot of enthusiasm and momentum and FOMO in order that they’ll promote out gradually into this market that they are creating,” he said.
Scaramucci reiterated that the value of BTC is tied to its international network and that digitization in the next stage of humanity as “software is consuming the world.” Schiff acknowledged he would solely change his thoughts if BTC was backed by gold, and was truly used as a currency versus being traded primarily.
In celebration of his win, Schiff called out BTC proponent and MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor in jest:
“I just gotta say one thing. Michael Saylor stop ducking me, I know you’re out there.”