Bitcoin’s (BTC) utility over gold has returned to the spotlight after news emerged of hundreds of fake bars infiltrating the precious metals market.
A major forgery problem
As Reuters reported on Aug. 28, the gold industry is currently facing a forgery crisis — with fake kilogram bars found in the vaults of major banks such as JPMorgan Chase.
While roughly 1,000 have been discovered, experts told the publication there are likely many more in circulation.
“It’s our standard practice to immediately alert the appropriate authorities and refineries should we discover mismarked gold kilobars during routine checks and procedures,” JPMorgan told the publication.
The revelation coincides with a spike in the price of gold, which this week reached $1,540 and its highest-ever level against the euro.
Bitcoin full node is “fake Bitcoin detector”
Gold bugs continue to lambast cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin in the face of such strength, with proponents of the latter taking the forgery news as an opportunity to hit back.
Several noted that Bitcoin node operators can verify the authenticity of their holdings, while gold owners must rely on expertise.
“Bitcoin fixes this,” Francis Pouliot, founder of Canadian Bitcoin consumer platform Bull Bitcoin, commented on Twitter.
The popular Twitter account known as the Bitcoin Wizard went further.
“Would you accept gold as payment from someone you didn’t trust, without verifying the weight and purity of the gold before shipping your products to them?” a post on Wednesday said. It added:
“Think of a Bitcoin full node as a ‘fake Bitcoin detector’ — all you need to verify ‘purity’ of your Bitcoin is a Raspberry Pi.”
As Cointelegraph reported, gold’s recent successes nonetheless left one crypto stalwart with egg on its face this week. Grayscale’s Drop Gold campaign advised investors to dump the metal for Bitcoin in May, just before it gained 27%.