Peter Schiff and Erik Voorhees Debate Bitcoin Value on Twitter
Gold advocate Peter Schiff and Bitcoin entrepreneur Erik Voorhees engage in public Twitter debate about Bitcoin's value proposition versus precious metals.
On January 28, 2018, prominent gold investor and Bitcoin skeptic Peter Schiff engaged in a public Twitter debate with Erik Voorhees, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift and long-time Bitcoin advocate. The exchange exemplified ongoing tensions between traditional hard-money advocates who favored gold and the newer generation who saw Bitcoin as 'digital gold' that improved upon precious metals' properties.
Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital and son of famous libertarian economist Irwin Schiff, had been one of Bitcoin's most persistent critics from within the hard-money, Austrian economics community. His arguments against Bitcoin typically emphasized that it lacked intrinsic value, was not backed by anything tangible, faced potential technical failure or government prohibition, and could not match gold's thousands of years of monetary history.
Voorhees countered with arguments that Bitcoin improved upon gold in key dimensions: it was more divisible, more portable, easier to verify as genuine, and could be transmitted globally at near-light speed. The Schiff-Voorhees debates were significant because both shared similar economic philosophies—skepticism of fiat currency, preference for sound money, concern about government monetary policy—yet reached opposite conclusions about Bitcoin.
Their exchanges highlighted fundamental questions about what gave money value and whether Bitcoin's mathematical scarcity and digital properties could fulfill monetary functions comparable to or superior to physical commodities. The debates occurred during a period when Bitcoin's price performance was weakening Schiff's case but network congestion and high fees were weakening Voorhees's arguments about usability.
For the broader Bitcoin community, these high-profile debates helped clarify Bitcoin's value proposition and exposed various arguments to public scrutiny, even if neither party convinced the other.The Schiff-Voorhees dynamic would continue for years, with Schiff maintaining his skepticism even as Bitcoin achieved higher prices and broader adoption.