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noone actually transports physical gold, they just transfer the certificates of ownership (physically or electronically)

by blibble 11y ago

aaronhoffman 11y ago
I have a gold coin in my pocket right now.
cs702 11y ago
Those certificates are issued by third parties who must secure, transport, and hide the physical gold. Those third parties spend quite a bit to store the gold in secure facilities guarded around the clock, transport the gold from/to those facilities in armored vehicles, and keep the gold hidden from view, e.g., in underground vaults. Guess who ends up paying fees to cover all those costs? Certificate holders.
- phillmv 11y ago
  It's not like bitcoin is free, either. A lot of someones burn a lot of electricity 24x7 in order for bitcoin to hold any value, too - and bitcoin holders pay for it just the same.
  - RockyMcNuts 11y ago
    Divide the number of bitcoin transactions by the power spent mining, and each transaction consumes enough power to run an American household for a day and a half. http://motherboard.vice.com/read/bitcoin-is-unsustainable http://motherboard.vice.com/read/bitcoin-is-unsustainable
    - FatalLogic 11y ago
      The biggest flaw with that calculation is that most Bitcoin miners are not located in American households. They're naturally located where electricity is much cheaper: they're using environmentally-generated or surplus power, close to the source, at bulk industrial rates. The author even said it in the same article, but did not factor it into the clickbaiting comparison.
adaml_623 11y ago
I think you should probably research that a little better. If you see look on wiki[1] you can see a focus on gold held by governments. The US for instance holds 8000 tons of gold. However if you dig ;-) deeper you find out that a country like India is estimated to have 15,000+ tons [2] of gold held privately traditionally as jewelry. This Indian form of savings is widespread and does contradict your statement regarding physical gold. Other countries have similar although normally less savings held in this form. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_reserve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_reserve [2] - http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/07/14/indias-600-billion-hidden-treasure/ http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/07/14/indias-600-bil...

noone actually transports physical gold, they just transfer the certificates of ownership (physically or electronically)

by blibble 11y ago

noone actually transports physical gold, they just transfer the certificates of ownership (physically or electronically)

aaronhoffman 11y ago

I have a gold coin in my pocket right now.

cs702 11y ago

Those certificates are issued by third parties who must secure, transport, and hide the physical gold. Those third parties spend quite a bit to store the gold in secure facilities guarded around the clock, transport the gold from/to those facilities in armored vehicles, and keep the gold hidden from view, e.g., in underground vaults. Guess who ends up paying fees to cover all those costs? Certificate holders.

phillmv 11y ago
It's not like bitcoin is free, either. A lot of someones burn a lot of electricity 24x7 in order for bitcoin to hold any value, too - and bitcoin holders pay for it just the same.
- RockyMcNuts 11y ago
  Divide the number of bitcoin transactions by the power spent mining, and each transaction consumes enough power to run an American household for a day and a half. http://motherboard.vice.com/read/bitcoin-is-unsustainable http://motherboard.vice.com/read/bitcoin-is-unsustainable
  - FatalLogic 11y ago
    The biggest flaw with that calculation is that most Bitcoin miners are not located in American households. They're naturally located where electricity is much cheaper: they're using environmentally-generated or surplus power, close to the source, at bulk industrial rates. The author even said it in the same article, but did not factor it into the clickbaiting comparison.

adaml_623 11y ago

I think you should probably research that a little better. If you see look on wiki[1] you can see a focus on gold held by governments. The US for instance holds 8000 tons of gold. However if you dig ;-) deeper you find out that a country like India is estimated to have 15,000+ tons [2] of gold held privately traditionally as jewelry. This Indian form of savings is widespread and does contradict your statement regarding physical gold. Other countries have similar although normally less savings held in this form. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_reserve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_reserve [2] - http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/07/14/indias-600-billion-hidden-treasure/ http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/07/14/indias-600-bil...