Bitcoin, on the other hand, has long carried the mantle of “digital gold” — all the scarcity of a commodity without the traditional transportation and storage costs required with physical goods. Why then do we bother with ETFs, which are effectively a wrapper, instead of owning your own digital gold in your own digital wallets? Because cryptocurrency is still in its early developmental phase and products such as wallets and exchanges are still complex and daunting for the vast majority.