‘Backed by nothing’: Peter Schiff says bitcoin can’t rival tokenized gold in debate with CZ

Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao and gold advocate Peter Schiff debated the merits of digital money at Binance Blockchain Week in Dubai. They initially agreed that tokenized gold might be superior to physical gold due to its divisibility and transferability. However, the core disagreement centered on Bitcoin's backing. Schiff argued Bitcoin is "backed by nothing," similar to fiat money, deriving its value only from transferability, whereas tokenized gold is backed by the physical metal. CZ countered that Bitcoin's virtual nature does not negate its value, citing its global network and fixed supply as support, contrasting it with gold's unknowable supply. They also clashed on utility; Schiff claimed Bitcoin fails monetary tests because nothing is priced in it, while CZ pointed to real-world use cases, like faster payments in Africa, and long-term performance as evidence of its utility. The debate concluded with CZ predicting Bitcoin's future success and Schiff forecasting that rising precious-metal demand would eventually surpass crypto.

(Source：The Block)