Editor's note: Individual investors have a huge advantage over Wall Street in the cryptocurrency markets.

And when it comes to cryptos, the first name most people think of is bitcoin.

In today's Masters Series essay, cryptocurrency expert Eric Wade, who writes the excellent Crypto Capital advisory for our corporate affiliates at Stansberry Pacific Research, compares bitcoin with gold and discusses the arguments for owning both assets...

Should You Own Bitcoin or Gold?

By Eric Wade, editor, Crypto Capital

Gold bugs are rarely, if ever, bearish on gold. To them, it's the only real currency in a world of money-printing central banks endlessly devaluing their fiat (paper) currencies. Few people believe so fervently as gold bugs do.

But bitcoin fanatics come pretty close. These folks believe that this decentralized digital currency is the ultimate means of easily transferring value without the need for a centralized entity, intermediary, or central bank. Bitcoin is a libertarian's dream.

Now, given that gold bugs and bitcoin fanatics share a common desire (a completely independent store of value) and a common enemy (central banks), you'd think they might be the best of friends. But they're not.

Bitcoin is frequently compared to gold. They're the only two widely distributed, decentralized methods of exchanging value as currency. There is no central authority issuance like there is with U.S. dollars or any other fiat currencies.

Neither bitcoin nor gold can just be "printed" at the push of a button by an anxious central banker. You have to either earn your gold by mining it – which is what you do to mine bitcoin, but with computers instead of picks and shovels – or you can pay cash for it.

But for the gold bugs, there's no substitute for being able to see, feel, and carry their gold.

Bitcoin? That just exists somewhere on the Internet, as far as they are concerned.

One of the biggest hurdles between the current state of bitcoin and mass adoption is that it's not easy to fully explain in less than 30 seconds to the average guy on the street.

Yes, you can just say it's a "digital currency," and that's a start. But explaining the fundamentals of blockchain and the distributed ledger systems upon which it's built is not straightforward.

It usually takes time and effort for people to truly understand just how much of a breakthrough bitcoin really is when it comes to a being a trustless mechanism for exchanging value. (Trustless in the context of bitcoin means we don't need to trust an intermediary to settle our transaction – we can exchange value directly with one another securely, thanks to distributed ledger technology.)

It's human nature – and, from an investment perspective, smart – to be skeptical of large, world-transformational promises built on a new technology... especially one you don't fully understand yet.

On the other hand, a gold coin is a gold coin. It's shiny, heavy, tangible, and it exudes value and permanence.

Gold doesn't have a point of failure the way bitcoin does. If the worst happens – by that, I mean the kind of scenarios that doomsday preppers harp on about – a lack of Internet connectivity removes my ability to do much with my bitcoin.

A gold coin can still sit in my pocket, even while I might be fending off mobs, zombies, nuclear winter, etc.

But the world is changing – away from gold.

Consider this... Gold might have been a bedrock form of currency for thousands of years. But will the physical tangibility of gold become less important over time for generations who gradually shift more and more of their entire lives into the digital world?

People interchange the words bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and blockchain. The truth is, these are all different and similar at the same time. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency built on a blockchain. Cryptocurrencies, of which there are hundreds, vary hugely in what they do and what problems they purport to solve, but they all (with one or two exceptions) leverage the kind of blockchain technology that bitcoin pioneered.

The word "currency" in cryptocurrency is somewhat misleading, as many of these have very specific, security-like characteristics that provide economic ownership of a commercial blockchain. It's easy for people to lump cryptocurrencies into a single basket. But that's like saying that all publicly traded stocks are the same.

If you were to ask me which I think is more likely to be around a hundred years from now, it's gold... every time. Nothing has usurped it for millennia as a globally accepted medium of exchange or store of value, and I don't think bitcoin will do so, either.

Gold can't be altered. Gold is gold. Once I own it, that's it. I don't need to rely on a functioning Internet. I don't need a computer. It's pure tangible value.

Bitcoin, however, runs on a protocol that can be changed. Without going too much into it, a couple months from now, bitcoin could look completely different.

But I own bitcoin the same way I own gold: locked up, out of sight, and out of mind. The gold will always be there... As for bitcoin, I can't say that with 100% certainty.

But if you ask me which one is likelier to be up 1,000% three years from now, the answer is bitcoin.

Gold has stood the test of time and is a medium of storing value. For that reason, it deserves a place in your portfolio. Bitcoin's time, on the other hand, is just beginning. Blockchain is the future, and when you have an opportunity to buy the future and tuck it away, you should take it.

Good investing,

Eric Wade

Editor's note: Eric just released a brand-new video presentation detailing exactly why the crypto market crashed last year. More important, he shared proof that certain cryptos will begin to soar later this month. For bitcoin, that could mean a new all-time high above $25,000. For smaller cryptos, the gains could produce returns of 50 to 100 times your money this year. Get the details – and learn how to get two years of Eric's research for half the cost of a single year – right here.