Barry Silbert Says Bitcoin Has Huge Potential of Replacing Gold in the Near Future

The Founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group Barry Silbert has once again affirmed that Bitcoin is the future gold without any doubts. In an interview with Jen Wieczner and Robert Hackett of Fortune, Silbert said Bitcoin is headed towards a direction that is dangerous to gold.

Silbert who is also the CEO of Grayscale and the initiator of the #Dropgold campaign, said the cryptocurrency industry is set to displace all forms of competition and Bitcoin is set to replace gold and as a store of value and institutions are investing heavily in it.

“We saw a really large pick up in hedge fund money coming in. What was also interesting is that most of it went into Bitcoin. Over 90% of the money raised by Grayscale in the first quarter went into Bitcoin. Not much interest on the altcoin side, at least from the institutions. A lot of interest in Bitcoin” he said.

Comparing Bitcoin to gold, he said Bitcoin is a readily accessible asset by anyone with a multimedia phone.

Gold on the other hand is highly centralized and its uses are pretty limited to jewelry and a little, declining use in electricity. He also mentioned that while central banks are the ones that buy gold, Bitcoin is busy building a new financial system that eliminates middlemen and cost with real utility.

“Bitcoin has the potential to not just save society hundreds of billions of dollars but also create real economic opportunity around the world.”

“Gold – the more expensive it gets, the less useful it becomes,” he said.

Bitcoin will be regarded as very successful in Silbert’s book if it only brings down the $8 trillion gold market. This is why he is very aggressive about the #Dropgold campaign which has made laudable progress so far. The campaign recently launched on U.S national TV and has attracted a lot of attention since then.

In conclusion, Silbert has this to say:

I do think that Bitcoin will be more. I do think it’ll be a financial rail. I do think it’ll be a remittance tool. I think it will provide the infrastructure for a new financial system. But if all it ever is a replacement for gold, that’s good too.”