By Olga Kharif
Back in early 2013, the website BitcoinTalk.org asked users to select a slogan for the embryonic cryptocurrency. The winner was “Magic Internet Money,” with runners-up “In Crypto We Trust” and “You Asked for Change, We Gave You Coins.”
But it’s the tagline that came in eighth, “Digital Gold,” that has become synonymous with the dominant cryptocurrency. And that is turning out to be a quandary when it comes to achieving the goal of becoming the peer-to-peer electronic cash system outlined by its mysterious founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, in late 2008.
Bitcoin’s stratospheric price surge and dizzying volatility in the subsequent years have made it a favorite for speculation rather than a way to buy and sell goods and services. Meanwhile, advocates ranging from billionaire investor Michael Novogratz to Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss of Facebook fame are advising everyone else to hold on, or “hodl” in crypto parlance, because they claim it has morphed into a digital store of value such as gold.
“It’s too good a store of value to be a good value of exchange,” said Travis Kling, who runs crypto hedge-fund Ikigai Asset Management in Los Angeles. “If the expectation is the price is going to increase meaningfully, you don’t want to pay out all of your Bitcoins…
