Is it goodbye gold, hello bitcoin?

livemint.com:

We all look for alternatives and alternates, which may be called “Plan B", in plain speak. When it comes to investing, we have age-old wisdom of asset allocation to rely on. We are told not to put all our proverbial eggs in one basket but to diversify our capital investments.

Naturally there are also “Plan B" assets called safe havens that are included in an ideal portfolio. These assets not only safeguard our capital when markets are undergoing a challenging time, but also generate alpha (positive returns in absolute rupee terms).

The trade-off is that an investor should be prepared to be patient, as such safe havens can lie in hibernation mode for extended periods—the equivalent of financial Rip Van Winkle. Then suddenly, these hibernating assets roar to life and start sprinting while broader markets languish. For approximately 3,000 years, gold was the ultimate safe haven investment. Mankind has called gold “God's own currency" out of sheer reverence.

It is also true that change is the only constant in life. And technology is only speeding up the process of change. We have so many new assets that were unimaginable as recently as two decades ago. Now we have leveraged indices with multiplication factors of 2x and 3x, ETFs (exchange traded funds) that are electronic receipts for any number of underlying assets like shares, industrial metals, bullion, energy and bonds.

Then, we have the ultimate asset in the brave new investment universe – cryptocurrencies. This is an electronic form of currency that you will not be able to carry in your wallet in paper notes and/or coin form. It will reside in your electronic account accessible from your mobile phone or computer and will be transferable just like any payment wallet