For the first time in the history of the virtual currency, a single Bitcoin has become worth more than an ounce of gold.
As TechCrunch reports, the momentous, er, moment, happened following a good day for Bitcoin, and a slight slump in the price of gold in dollars. The price of one Bitcoin crept up to $1,238.11, compared to gold which was at $1,237.73, according to Bloomberg’s figures (via Engadget).
Interestingly, stats from Coindesk show that this came close to happening at the start of 2017, but Bitcoin sank back down temporarily, before storming upwards again and finally beating out gold as of now.
Bitcoin also hit a high close to this level way back towards the end of 2013, before a major fall from which it gradually recovered, gaining a lot of strength over the course of last year.
- We have compiled a list of the best bitcoin exchanges
Hedge hoggers
Of course, both gold and Bitcoin are seen as hedges against traditional currency (and indeed a doomsday-style meltdown by some). However, the cryptocurrency is considerably more volatile, while gold has been pretty much steady, generally speaking, over the last half-decade.
Bitcoins can be ‘mined’ by those with powerful enough computers, although last summer, it became more difficult to make money doing this mainly due to the so-called ‘halvening’. This is a built-in anti-inflation measure whereby the number of Bitcoins which can be found in any given time is halved (obviously making it harder to uncover them).
- If you want to know how to mine Bitcoins, we’ve got a guide here
