Instrument II · The Scorecard
The Scorecard
Rate each asset from one to ten on five properties, then say how much each property matters to you. The weighted result appears as a radar and as plain numbers, and the beam above leans toward the higher total.
Score the five properties
Starting opinions, edit freely
The scores you see first are the author’s starting opinions, labelled as such. They are not measurements, and a reasonable person could set every one of them differently. The weights begin equal.
The two lenses are illustrative weightings, not recommendations. They only move the weights; your scores stay where you set them.
The weighted result
Calculating.
XAU weighted score
— / 10
BTC weighted score
— / 10
| Property | Weight | XAU | BTC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portability | 5 | 5 | 8 |
| Divisibility | 5 | 5 | 9 |
| Verifiability | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Durability | 5 | 10 | 5 |
| Supply predictability | 5 | 5 | 10 |
How the totals are made
Each property’s score is multiplied by its weight and the products are added together. That sum is divided by the sum of all the weights, which gives a weighted average on the same one-to-ten scale as the scores. The weighted points shown under each total are the raw sum out of the most it could reach. A property with weight 0 is ignored entirely; if every weight is 0, there is nothing to average and the page says so. The beam tilts by one and a half degrees for each point of difference between the two totals, up to 12 degrees.
XAU side · Scoring note
Portability
Gold packs a great deal of value into a small volume, yet weight, insurance and security grow with the amount, and crossing a border with metal draws questions. A bitcoin balance is a secret that travels in memory or on a small device, and moving it takes minutes. The same property cuts the other way: a secret can be lost or taken in an instant.
BTC side · Scoring note
Divisibility
A gold coin or bar can be sized to fit a purchase, but below a certain size you are cutting, melting or trading fractional pieces. Bitcoin divides to eight decimal places; the smallest unit, one satoshi, is a hundred-millionth of a bitcoin. Divisibility in principle is not the same as being easy to spend in practice, for either asset.
XAU side · Scoring note
Verifiability
Gold can be weighed, measured for density, tested and assayed, and each step narrows doubt without removing it for free. For a large bar, most people lean on a refiner’s mark and the chain of hands behind it. Bitcoin can be verified by software that checks every rule from the first block, which is a stronger check in principle, but it asks for technical effort that many holders delegate.
BTC side · Scoring note
Durability
Gold is chemically inert and outlasts its owners, though it can still be stolen, confiscated or mislaid. Bitcoin does not decay, but it depends on software, keys, backups and a network of people continuing to follow the same rules. The metal has thousands of years of record behind it. The ledger has been running since 2009. Neither fact is a flaw; they are different lengths of history.
XAU side · Scoring note
Supply predictability
Bitcoin’s issuance schedule is published and enforced by the rules every node checks, ending at 21 million units. Gold’s supply grows by mining at a pace that is estimated rather than ruled, and new methods or discoveries can shift it. Predictable is not the same as better; it is simply a property that some people weigh heavily and others barely at all.