Peter Schiff Unable to Verify Gold Bar Authenticity During On-Stage Debate with CZ

Gold advocate Peter Schiff was unable to authenticate a gold bar presented to him during an on-stage debate with Binance co-founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao at Binance Blockchain Week, underscoring the practical difficulties of verifying physical precious metals.

When CZ handed Schiff a bar marked as 1,000 grams of 999.9 fine gold from Kyrgyzstan and asked if it was genuine, Schiff responded "I don't know," prompting laughter and applause from the crypto-focused audience.

The exchange occurred during a broader debate on whether Bitcoin or tokenized gold serves as a better store of value, with CZ arguing that Bitcoin's cryptographically secure public ledger allows instant verification by any user through a full node.

According to the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), industry-standard verification methods including X-Ray Fluorescent Spectroscopy, Ultrasound, and Eddy Current testing are costly, require experts, and have limited scope. Only fire assaying—a destructive process that involves melting down gold—provides 100% verification certainty.

Bitcoin advocates argue that tokenizing real-world assets on blockchains does not address inherent issues with underlying physical gold, including centralization risks, counterparty exposure, and expensive audit procedures.