Lou Kerner, co-founder and partner at CryptoOracle.io, a New York-based venture capital firm focused on investing in crypto-related startups, recently stated that Bitcoin (BTC) is “functionally much better” as a store of value than gold.
Kerner also said he believes people will eventually switch from gold to bitcoin as a long-term investment. Commenting on gold’s emergence as a global store of value over the past “couple of thousand years”, the Stanford University graduated noted that, “We would expect over time … for some of the people using gold ” as a store of value to switch to the flagship cryptocurrency.
“Not Really Something That’s Brand New”
When questioned about whether he thinks some of the “nervous money” is coming out of Bitcoin and if that’s a “healthy thing” in the longer term, Kerner said,
“this is not really something that’s brand new in terms of being different…we see new assets come [like] junk bonds [which were] created 40 years ago [and] they were extremely volatile like we’re seeing with bitcoin today. A lot of people said it was a scam, [but] 40 years later, it’s the same as everything else. We think bitcoin is going along that same [direction].”
He added that “any new asset in its early days is extremely volatile. Nobody knows how to price it and that’s exactly what we’re seeing with bitcoin today.”
Notably, in a previous interview in November 2017, Kerner said that blockchain-based decentralized technologies such as smart contracts are the “biggest thing to happen to mankind.” The CryptoOracle co-founder then compared its growth and development to that of giant online retailer Amazon from 1997-2000, which was also considered a “bubble” at the time.
Kerner noted that Amazon’s stocks went up by 70x in the late 90’s, but then also crashed by 95%. He added that “if you stretch it out till today…all of that violent up and violent down over those four years is just this tiny little blip. And, I think that’s where we’re at today with bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market.”
Bitcoin Will Be A “Flight To Safety”
Kerner is not the only crypto market analyst who has compared Bitcoin to gold or described its growth and adoption by giving examples of established tech companies like Microsoft, Intel, and Amazon.
As CryptoGlobe reported, veteran crypto analyst Willy Woo had stated that bitcoin’s price would drop sharply, but “then moon afterwards, just like gold in [the] WFC [Wall Street Financial Crisis] 2008.”
Woo also predicted there would be a “flight to safety” where “everything sells off to USD … then afterwards to havens like gold and BTC.” Moreover, CoinShares’ chief strategic officer Meltem Demirors, also said that “paradigm changing technologies” like those developed by Amazon and Microsoft take a very long time to mature, so their adoption rate increases gradually over the course of many years. This, Demirors said, would also be the case with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum’s Ether (ETH) token.
Notably BTC is on pace to clear more than double the transaction volume of the global gold markets this year. The cryptocurrency’s transaction volume surpassed that of gold last year, when its price hit parity with the ounce of gold.
