King Gold, Relied Upon by Asia’s Unbanked, May Get Challenge from Bitcoin

Gold is still king in some less developed parts of the Asia-Pacific region. Khmers, Malaysians, Thais and others still use it to bypass financial institutions that have been tainted by widespread banking malpractice. 

Maybe not for long, as bitcoin — easier to move and safer to carry around — makes inroads.

The APAC region’s banks are “opaque,” as well as “plagued by bad debts, corruption and nepotism,” Agence France-Presse wrote in a story last year about the jailing in Vietnam by 46 bankers over a loan swindle. And still, investors who shun banks and store gold jewellery at home, often at the risk of being robbed. 

So-called digital gold is challenging the real stuff. Cryptocurrencies — bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum — offer people the opportunity to avoid the shady banking system without the downside of having to lug around a gold bar. They are widely recognized units of value, worth the same in Vietnam as in the U.S. or the…