Bitcoin vs Gold - Which is better?

First of all, why do we compare two things? It's because they are similar in what they do, but they do it differently and the differences make us choose which is better.

So Why are we comparing Gold and Bitcoin in the first place? Let's take a look into the history where this all started.
Hundreds of years ago, when human civilization has started, people started doing different works. In order to get what they needed from other people, they exchanged their possessions. For example, wheat was exchanged for fruits, fruits were exchanged for tools etc. Ultimately the Barter system was developed. There were some issues though. If one does not own something that other people want to exchange, the problem arose and another problem was that some goods cannot be used as an exchange, as they lost their value as the time passed. After a certain period of time, people paid Barley for everything they wanted to buy. But Barley was heavy and not easy to carry around. Similarly, conch shells are used as a medium of exchange but they are easily obtainable on the beaches. They are not that scarce.
And once the kings and emperors started ruling the land, they found that precious metals can be used as a medium of exchange. They minted their own coins and imprinted their logo on the coins. Thus, Bronze, Silver, Gold coins were in the circulation and people used them as a store of value and everyone accepted them as they found value in them and they were issued by the rulers. And also not to mention, they were all shiny metals and also used as ornaments in many countries from the olden days.
During the 18th century, banks issued IOUs. An IOU is a piece of paper. Think of it this way, if you gave the bank this paper, you can get the same amount of Gold the paper is worth. So, this IOU is used to buy goods, services etc. Anyone who wants to exchange the IOU for Gold should go to the bank. This is where the idea of paper money was originated from. But the problem here is, the IOU will only be accepted in the surrounding area of the banks, where it was issued.
Beginning of the 19th century led centralized banks to take care of all these. The central banks took care of issuing paper money and it was accepted everywhere in the country. Governments made these banknotes as a legal tender. Central banks maintained a Gold standard to issue paper currency. But in 1971, United States President Richard Dixon put an end to the Gold standard. The currencies that are backed by nothing and has a value only because Government says so are called Fiat currencies. Every country held US Dollars in their reserve as it was backed by Gold, now as the US dollar is backed by nothing, most of countries currencies too ended up in the same way. As US Dollar was traded across the world, it kind of became a Global reserve currency. However, countries like China and Russia kept on building their Gold reserves over time.

Okay, now we know all this, let's see what factors made something a better currency and also compare Bitcoin and Gold in these aspects.

Fungibility

Every unit of currency should possess the same value and should be interchangeable. For example, you don't bother to exchange a ten-dollar bill for another 10 dollar bill. The dollar is fungible but wheat, barley or fish are non-fungible.
Coming to Gold, you only exchange 10 grams of gold coin for another gold coin if it has the same purity. Bitcoin is digital, each and every bitcoin has the same value. So, we can say Gold is somewhat less fungible compared to Bitcoin.

Portability

Heavy items cannot be used as currency, obviously because they are not portable. Would you like to carry heavy things in your pocket to buy something? Never. After we transformed into a digital economy, we just use debit or credit cards, swipe and pay using them or just scan a QR code or something and the payment is done.
Gold is not something we now use to purchase goods, it has some degree of portability but we don't use it now. Bitcoin on the other hand perfectly suits the current world. You can carry it just using an application on your smartphone. Don't you carry your smartphone everywhere?

Durability

We have talked about this before, substances like fish, fruits are used for exchange only until they are fresh. If a currency is not durable, it can't even be used as a currency.
Gold is a shiny metal which is obtained from the earth. It won't get rusted, it will stay as it is until an asteroid hits the earth and destroys all the Gold on it. Bitcoin is durable as long as there is the internet. I mean Bitcoin is originated from software and the internet. As long as we have them, we don't need to worry. Which is most probable to happen? An asteroid hitting the earth or destruction of the whole internet.

Divisibility

Let's say an item is worth 1 dollar but if you need only 1/10th part of that, you pay 10 cents. What if you need only 1/1000th part of that item? You can't pay because the dollar is not divisible beyond 100 parts.
Similarly, Oh wait! Not similarly, if you want to pay using Gold, it's kind of divisible, but you definitely need some serious tools to make it into parts. But in the case of Bitcoin, bitcoin can be divided into 100 million parts. The smallest unit of bitcoin is called a Satoshi. 100 million satoshis is equal to one bitcoin. So, we can say bitcoin is highly divisible.

Security

Did you watch the famous series Money Heist? Robbers occupy the Royal Mint of Spain and start printing the money. I am not talking about the bad security of the Mint. While we are talking about the security of a currency, a currency is most secure if it can't be counterfeited easily. We have heard of fake banknotes or dollar bills at some point in time.
Okay, Gold cannot be counterfeited but some people accept fake gold and regret later. Bitcoin can never be faked. It's practically impossible to create fake bitcoin. A 51% attack is required to take down bitcoin network and create fake bitcoin transactions but it's not happened till date.

Scarcity

If I say what scarcity does to a currency, you will be shocked. We have seen when snail shells are used as currency. As they are easily available on beaches and not so scarce, if you collect them on any beach and purchase any goods, you're literally getting the goods for free. The merchant now remains with a lot of shells. If he can't get more goods with them, he definitely stops accepting them. So, if there is a lot of supply, the demand decreases.
Gold is scarce but do you know exactly how scarce? Okay, it's scarcer than all the fiat currencies in the world. Do you agree? So, what happens when fiat supply increases are, the scarer things get more valuable.
There will only be 21 Million bitcoins forever. Bitcoin is the scarcest asset ever. The supply keeps on halving every four years by a process known as Bitcoin Halving. Till now(at the time of writing this article) 18,441,793 bitcoins have been mined out of 21,000,000.

Store of Value

An asset or currency can be called as a store of value if it maintains its value over a long period of time without depreciating. Gold has been here for centuries. It has been held for generations as ornaments and passed over to future generations in some countries. Gold has always proved valuable during the time of crisis in the past and no doubt it will do the same in the future too. Many economists believe hyperinflation can occur anytime soon due to massive stimulus packages from the central banks. When the dollar falls, Gold only find its way to new all-time-highs.
Now, if we talk about bitcoin, it's created using a computer, run on a blockchain using certain algorithms. It's been only 10 years since it's the origin. The main reason it was created is due to the centralization of money by Governments and Central banks. Due to its limited supply and ease of use without any middlemen makes it a freedom currency. It's also the best performing asset in the last decade. We are yet to test it as a store of value in the coming future. The coronavirus impact and other economic factors can lead to the biggest recession ever. This is the time for bitcoin to prove itself.
And there are some other things about bitcoin. No one controls the creation of bitcoin and supply is fixed. No Government can ban bitcoin as it is used on the internet and it's not physical. Bitcoin transactions are almost non-traceable and you can always hide your identity while making a bitcoin transaction.
At the end of the day, we are the one who should think and work to build wealth.
Now tell me, your opinions in the comments.