“Bitcoin is digital gold” is a popular trope among Bitcoin (BTC) maximalists due to its scarcity and [former] use in payments.

Bitcoin had obvious advantages over gold, Bitcoin Core developers destroyed these after ousting Satoshi Nakamoto’s handpicked successor and those who supported his vision.

Bitcoin’s unique value proposition was as a permissionless payment network with a native asset.

Digital dollars require a Visa, Paypal, or SWIFT to move through; cryptocurrencies are native to their networks.

Bitcoin scaling and high fees

Contrary to Satoshi Nakamoto’s advice, Bitcoin Core developers artificially limited the amount of transactions Bitcoin could process.

This created a bidding war for block space, driving fees up to ten, fifty, even hundreds of dollars per transaction in some cases.

Apologists like Safidean Ammous argue that this is how Bitcoin is supposed to work; some developers are even campaigning for less space for transactions each block.

A new analogy

Maximalists’ reasoning that difficult, costly transactions are desirable because they mimic gold is clearly absurd – a dogmatic fixation with reasoning by analogy instead of from first principles.

Yet, the analogy conveys a potent message: Like gold, Bitcoin is scarce and durable, and therefore valuable.

Analogies can be useful in teaching, but all analogies break down in some detail. “Digital gold” misses Bitcoin’s unique nature as a payment network AND its native asset.

If we are to continue introducing newcomers to cryptocurrency by analogies, a new analogy is in order – and one that highlights cryptocurrencies’ unique utility.

“Digital Platinum”

Gold is not an especially useful metal.

Most of its “use” is as a speculative instrument, or else as a display of wealth – a feature not replicable by Bitcoin.

Among precious metals, copper is arguably the most useful, but it’s not scarce. Platinum lies somewhere in between.

Digital platinum makes for a better analogy, especially for Bitcoin Cash, which follows Satoshi’s outline for scaling that affords it utility.

True to the analogy, platinum is even used in its own mining, found in the catalytic converters of the heavy machines which harvest the ore.

Conclusion

No analogy is perfect; taken to extremes, this one would fall apart as well.

For the purpose of informing the next wave of cryptocurrency users, though, “digital platinum” should do.

Hopefully we won’t need to write another article in five years clarifying the intent of this one.