Bitcoin and RealUnit: Common vision - different implementation.
Author: Daniel Stüssi, CEO of RealUnit Schweiz AG
State authority is growing by the day, the right to privacy is being eroded and the financial sovereignty of the individual is dwindling. The state and its extended arm, namely the central banks, exercise power through their monopoly on money and use interest rates to determine how much the holder of fiat money is expropriated each year through inflation.
As early as 1976, Friedrich August von Hayek called for the separation of state and money in his groundbreaking book “Denationalization of Money”. He advocated breaking the state’s monopoly on issuing currency and creating a market for private currencies instead. Hayek’s bold proposal aimed to promote a more stable and efficient financial system through competition.
For the first time in history, Bitcoin offers a store of value that cannot be controlled or manipulated by states. While Bitcoin is the pioneer of blockchain technology and stands out thanks to its decentralized nature and fixed supply of 21 million coins, the RealUnit token offers an innovative alternative by bridging the gap between the blockchain and the real economy.
The main difference between these two digital assets lies in their backing, or in the case of Bitcoin, the lack thereof. The RealUnit is an equity token under Swiss law. RealUnit Schweiz AG is a listed investment company based in Baar that invests in a broadly diversified range of real assets. It pursues the goal of protecting its shareholders’ assets against crises, expropriation and loss of purchasing power in the best possible way. By purchasing the RealUnit tokens, you participate in a stable portfolio of physical gold, silver and shares in companies with a crisis-resistant business model, mainly from Switzerland. This is a very different value proposition compared to Bitcoin, whose value is mainly determined by market supply and demand and which is known for its high volatility.
It is to be expected that in the future, as we consistently saw in the past, the value of the RealUnit will continue to be much more stable than that of Bitcoin. The target groups for the two digital stores of value can therefore be differentiated as follows: The RealUnit is the right choice for cautious investors, while Bitcoin is currently more appropriate for investors who are more willing to take risks. If you want to diversify your profits with crypto in other asset classes without foregoing the advantages of self-custody in your own wallet, RealUnit is a stable value alternative.
Comparison between the RealUnit Token and Bitcoin
| Characteristics | RealUnit Token | Bitcoin (BTC) |
|---|---|---|
| Store of value | Yes | Yes |
| Backed by real assets | Yes | No |
| Tradable on the Blockchain | Yes (Ethereum-Netzwerk) | Yes (Bitcoin-Netzwerk) |
| Token supply | Flexible, depending on the premium/discount to the net asset value | Fixed at 21 million BTC (scarcity incentive) |
| Inflation protection | Yes (through investments in performance-oriented und real assets) | Yes (through «Halving» every four years) |
| Performance | Focused on value stability | High fluctuations |
| Price discovery | Intrinsic value of underlying investments | Market supply and demand |
| Governance | Every share or token has a voting right (shareholder democracy) | Decentralized structures with core developers, node operators and miners |
