Wyre CEO Michael Dunworth has stated that he believes Bitcoin “will replace gold” and the USD as the global reserve currency within 20 years.

The chief of the Silicon Valley transfer provider made the comments as part of an interview with InvestorDaily.

Among other surprises, Dunworth said that Bitcoin had “superior value” to gold and lacked only market penetration at the current time.

Better store of value

“[Bitcoin] will replace gold, and internationally it will replace the USD as the global reserve currency – 20 years or so from now that is,” he told the publication.

“Bitcoin has a superior value to gold in its store of value and usability. However, it has received nowhere near the same penetration.”

Dunfield is just the latest cryptocurrency industry figure to champion Bitcoin’s inherent use case as a store of value rather than a currency.

Amid last week’s price surge, fellow entrepreneur Vinny Lingham stated that Bitcoin as a currency was in the final stage of a long process, one that is not the most important in 2017.

He tweeted that its major importance is first as a commodity and subsequently as a store of value.

Despite bouncing down below $1000, Lingham said that price fluctuations did not necessarily represent a bubble and therefore instability as an asset.

“I think that if we go above $4,000 this year, we will be in a bubble. It should be slow and steady growth to $3,000. The best we can hope for is that it stays below $2,000 for the next three months at least," he commented last week.

Buying shares in ‘Internet of money’

Dunfield, meanwhile, admitted that short-term volatility of any kind acts as a deterrent to some more wary investors. Nonetheless, the classic comparison between Bitcoin and the early Internet is still valid in his eyes:

“Imagine this – if you could go back to 1991 and were able to buy shares in ‘the Internet,’ would you? You definitely would, because you know now that it’s the most impactful thing the world has seen.”

“Well the Blockchain and Bitcoin are the ‘Internet of money’, so Bitcoins are like the chance of buying shares in that.”