Goldbacks vs. Cryptocurrency: Can You Use Goldbacks Online?

Goldbacks and cryptocurrency get mentioned in the same breath surprisingly often. Both appeal to people skeptical of fiat money, and both promise an alternative to the dollar. But they work in fundamentally different ways — and one of the most common questions, whether you can use Goldbacks online like crypto, has a clear answer.

Can You Use Goldbacks Online?

Not currently. Goldbacks are physical notes, and there is no built-in digital system today that lets you spend them online the way you'd send cryptocurrency from a wallet. To use a Goldback, you generally hand the physical note to a participating merchant.

That said, nothing precludes Goldbacks from offering similar online-payment services in the future. For now, though, online spendability is a feature crypto has and Goldbacks don't.

How Goldbacks and Crypto Differ

The two are easy to lump together but differ on nearly every dimension:

• Backing: A Goldback is backed by — in fact, is — real 24K gold you can hold. Most cryptocurrencies are not backed by any physical asset; their value rests on the network and market demand.
• Physical vs. digital: Goldbacks are tangible notes you store yourself. Crypto is purely digital, held in wallets and secured by private keys.
• Custody and loss: Lose a Goldback and it's gone like cash; lose your crypto keys and your coins are gone like cash, too — but crypto adds risks like exchange hacks and irreversible transfers.
• Volatility: Gold is historically far less volatile than most cryptocurrencies, whose prices can swing dramatically in a single day.
• Transactions: Crypto settles digitally, anywhere, instantly. Goldbacks settle in person, within a voluntary merchant network.

Where Each One Fits

These differences point to different jobs. Crypto excels at fast, borderless, online and peer-to-peer digital transfers, with higher volatility and higher technical risk. Goldbacks excel as a tangible, gold-based store of value that you can also spend in person — physical, verifiable, and tied to a metal with a multi-thousand-year track record.

Many sound-money advocates hold both, for different reasons: crypto for digital utility and asymmetric upside, Goldbacks for physical gold you can carry, store, and hand to a merchant. If part of your interest is the philosophy underneath both, see Goldbacks and the Sound Money Movement: What You Need to Know.

The Future of Digital Goldbacks

The honest summary is that Goldbacks today are an in-person, physical currency, while crypto is a digital one. Whether the gap narrows — whether Goldbacks eventually gain crypto-like online functionality — remains to be seen, and Goldback Inc. has left the door open. For now, evaluate Goldbacks for what they are: spendable physical gold, not a digital token. For a fuller picture of what they can do today, see What Can You Do With Goldbacks? Protect, Grow, and Spend.

Bottom Line

You can't spend Goldbacks online like cryptocurrency — they're physical, in-person, gold-backed notes, where crypto is digital, online, and typically unbacked. Each fits a different need, and plenty of buyers own both. If you want tangible gold you can hold and spend, compare current Goldback prices to start at the best rate.