Student loans? Hedge with bitcoins, says Gold Silver Bitcoin

A company called Gold Silver Bitcoin is touting its commodities of choice as a way for college students and graduates to hedge their often-huge student debts.

To back its argument, the company cites reports that the number of graduates in the US who have fallen behind on their student loan payments has climbed to an all-time high.

In the third quarter of 2012, 11 percent of payments on student loans were 90 days or more past due -- considered "seriously delinquent" -- according to a report from the US Department of Education.

The department also reported that nearly one-third (around 30 percent) of 20- to 24-year-olds in the US don't have jobs or go to school.

While the employment rate for college graduates remains higher than for those with just a high-school diploma, a college diploma "no longer guarantees a direct pathway to the middle class," said Jack Buckley, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, the Department of Education agency that released the latest report.

Gold Silver Bitcoin says it was "founded with the needs of the future bullion investor in mind." It says it's concluded that Bitcoin is "what modern precious metals investors needed as it offers privacy and can also be used as payment to anyone, anywhere in the world, instantly."

According to American Student Assistance, the average student loan balance in the US was $24,301 in the first quarter of 2012. Total outstanding student loan debt is believed to be stand at around $1 trillion.