The price of one Bitcoin surpassed the price of an ounce of gold for the first time in history on Thursday, a milestone some investors said solidifies the currency as "digital gold."By Thursday evening, the price of one Bitcoin was $1,271, according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index.Meanwhile, gold per ounce was priced at $1,235, according to Oklahoma-based precious metals retailer APMEX.Bitcoin is a type of digital currency created in 2009 by a software developer using the name Satoshi Nakamoto.Unlike dollars or euros, Bitcoins are not printed.Instead, computers "mine" them from a set number of Bitcoins.This time last year, the price of one Bitcoin was $421.60.The value now floats around $1,200, more than tripling in the last 12 months.Gold, however, has been trading around the same price it was a year ago.“Gold has been going up but it hasn’t been rising as rapidly as Bitcoin," digital currency trader Brian Kelly said.One factor that may have led to Bitcoin’s price surge is an upcoming decision by the Securities and Exchange Commission on whether to approve a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) proposed by venture capitalist twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss four years ago.

The decision, which is expected by March 11, would mark the first bitcoin ETF in the U.S.If approved, the ETF would have to buy an estimated $300 million worth of Bitcoin, potentially doubling the value of the currency.bitcoin sdk androidProponents of Bitcoin, like Kelly, argue that the digital currency may be edging out gold as an alternative asset.bitcoin senderBitcoins have many similar properties to gold — they have a store of value, are not controlled by one country or company and are scarce, with a limited 21 million available.bitcoin faucet miningBitcoin, however, can be traded more easily than a heavy piece of metal.bitcoin miner was ist das

According to the International Business Times, more than 100,000 merchants around the world accept Bitcoins as a form of payment, including Microsoft, Dell and Expedia.bitcoin shell script"You can't walk into a Starbucks today and carve off a little bit of gold to buy your cup of coffee, but you can pay for it with Bitcoin," said Adam White, head of GDAX, the largest U.S.-based digital currency exchange.ethereum business insiderWhite, who believes digital forms of currencies are no flash in the pan, said early adopters are driving up the price.litecoin cashThe number of people using the Bitcoin network has doubled over the last year, he said.ethereum explained"Bitcoin has inherent benefits over gold that gold can't compete with," he said.ethereal blade sound

"Bitcoin is not going away.This new asset class, which Bitcoin represents the first of, is sticking around."Still, White said Thursday's milestone is largely symbolic."The units of measurement are very arbitrary.For us, we're focused less on the price, and more on how the fundamentals of the Bitcoin network are doing."Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, is more skeptical of Bitcoin's future.Speaking on CNBC-TV Monday, Schiff called Bitcoin a "digital fool's gold."Schiff and other skeptics argue that despite Bitcoin reaching an all-time high in value this week, it is not as viable as gold.While thousands of vendors claim to accept the cryptocurrency, Schiff says merchants are actually being paid in dollars.Schiff said that BitPay, a bitcoin payment service provider founded in 2011, works with vendors to convert Bitcoin to dollars after an exchange takes place."In theory, I can give a coffee merchant my Bitcoin.But no coffee merchants actually do this.They accept dollars," Schiff told NBC News.

"Bitcoin isn't used as money.Its just an asset that you liquidate, and you get money." Schiff predicted the price of Bitcoin will likely come crashing down soon, calling the digital currency "a lot of hype" with no inherit value."The early adopters, the guys who got in on this cheap, need to create a market so they can sell," Schiff said."That's why I compare [Bitcoin] to beanie babies."If you bought $100 worth of bitcoin in 2010, it would be worth $88 million today.Bitcoin was worth 0.003 cents in 2010.But the future can’t be predicted, and the path to successful investing is not simple.For those not intimately familiar with cryptocurrency, bitcoin has been volatile, despite the fact that some have called it a safe haven.Arjun Kharpal, a CNBC technology correspondent, argues in a recent opinion piece against those analysts who claim bitcoin is a safe haven asset for investors.Several analysts have recently claimed that one reason for bitcoin’s continued growth of late is that investors are seeking a safe haven asset for their money because the stock market has been less reliable.

Bobby Lee, CEO and co-founder of BTCC, for example, has said people turn to bitcoin today the way they used to turn to gold when seeking a safe haven for assets.Kharpal said he has never believed bitcoin to be a safe haven.He said bitcoin’s performance over the past year compared to the Nasdaq, a technology index, and gold demonstrates that bitcoin is more similar to the Nasdaq.From mid June 2016 onward, the Nasdaq and bitcoin have steadily risen.Nasdaq recently broke the 6,000 point barrier and continues to rise.Bitcoin, for its part, seems to hit a record high daily.Investing in both the index and bitcoin are both risky, Kharpal maintains.In comparing bitcoin’s trading pattern to gold indicates bitcoin is not as safe of an asset.Gold found significant support from mid June 2016 to mid October.Bitcoin, in contrast, was not showing significant change at the time.Also read: Bitcoin value: an unsafe haven Once President Trump was elected, many investors moved from gold to riskier assets, thinking the new administration would increase spending and reform taxation, thereby boosting stocks.