Joe Bryan, a former derivatives trader turned Bitcoin educator, has become one of the more thoughtful voices in the “hard money” debate. His central claim is simple: gold was once the best form of hard money humanity had, but Bitcoin has surpassed it.
We started thousands of years ago with a form of money that looked like beads or jewelry, however it didn’t have the seven characteristics of perfect money. He defines perfect money by a set of traits such as scarcity, verifiability, portability, durability, divisibility, and resistance to censorship.
Gold and Bitcoin both score highly on scarcity and durability, but gold fails badly when it comes to portability and divisibility. A person can move Bitcoin anywhere in the world in seconds. Gold, by contrast, is heavy, difficult to transport securely, and almost impossible to divide or verify instantly.
Bryan often frames Bitcoin as the next logical step in monetary evolution. Gold served its purpose for centuries, anchoring economic stability under the gold standard. Once governments detached their currencies from gold, the world entered what he calls a “broken money” era, where fiat currencies can be inflated without restraint. Bitcoin, in his view, restores monetary discipline while improving on gold’s weaknesses.
Why Bitcoin Beats Gold
Bitcoin is “perfect money” because it combines the scarcity of gold with the efficiency of digital technology. Every Bitcoin can be verified instantly by anyone, whereas gold cannot. It can be sent globally without intermediaries, and it cannot be debased by a central authority.
Gold’s physical nature, once its strength, now makes it obsolete in a digital economy. Transporting large quantities of gold across borders requires cost, risk, and trust in third parties. Bitcoin eliminates all of that. Bryan calls it “self-sovereign money,” because holders control it directly in their own wallet rather than through banks or governments.
He also highlights an often-overlooked point: gold supply is not perfectly capped. New mining operations can increase global supply, when the gold price makes it profitable to mine gold you can be sure that someone will go out and do so, while Bitcoin’s total issuance will never exceed 21 million coins. This fixed supply, Bryan argues, gives Bitcoin absolute scarcity, something no other asset has achieved in history.
Progress Should Be Deflationary
Bryan’s position is not only economic but moral. He views monetary inflation as a mechanism that transfers wealth from savers to borrowers and from the poor to the politically connected. Bitcoin, by contrast, allows individuals to opt out of a system built on debt and monetary manipulation.
Gold once offered that same escape, but the world changed. Bitcoin allows the same resistance to inflation in a borderless, digital form. For Bryan, that makes it the final stage in humanity’s search for sound money.
From Gold Bars to Private Keys
Bryan’s message is clear: if you believe in the principles that once made gold valuable: scarcity, freedom, and independence, then Bitcoin is the logical successor. But understanding that idea is only the first step.
Owning Bitcoin responsibly means holding it in a wallet you control. Exchanges can fail, but private wallets put you in charge of your own assets. Self-custody ensures that your Bitcoin remains truly yours, protected by your own keys rather than by a third party’s promises.
Holding Bitcoin in Your Own Wallet
As investors reassess their investment strategy and move into Bitcoin, they are also taking extra care in how they store it, shifting toward self-custody solutions like Best Wallet that give them full control over their assets.
There are many reasons why Best Wallet could be the best option for all investors in 2025. First, it is self-custodial, so users are in full control of their Bitcoin and are, therefore, not vulnerable to withdrawal delays, frozen accounts, or exchange hacks.
Also, it doesn’t require its users to complete KYC to engage in either basic or advanced trading, which makes it a more attractive option than centralized exchanges. Not only that, Best Wallet also lets users connect other wallets to it in order to manage different portfolios in one place.
At the same time, it features an intuitive, user-friendly mobile interface that anyone, including beginners, can easily navigate. It also supports a variety of blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Base, Polygon, and Binance Smart Chain, meaning that it can be used to store, buy, and trade all the tokens running on those networks.
The idea is to support over 60 blockchains in total through a series of updates, expanding the platform’s functionality and reach. In terms of trading features, Best Wallet ticks all the right boxes, allowing users to purchase thousands of cryptocurrencies using fiat and also swap them for one another seamlessly, regardless of the chain they are on.
The wallet even goes further by letting users to invest in new cryptocurrencies with high-growth potential through its token launchpad. Recent additions to the lineup of features on the platform include gamified rewards, which grant users points for visiting the wallet’s app daily and BTC swaps, which allow users to swap BTC for any other supported crypto, and vice versa.
When paired with its Fireblocks-backed security system, it’s easy why reputable publications like the New York Post are ranking it among the best options to buy Bitcoin safely in 2025.
Download Best Wallet
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