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> While it is true that pound-for-pound gold is more valuable than paper it is not true that gold has any other magical properties that make it any more useful

> While it is true that pound-for-pound gold is more valuable than paper it is not true that gold has any other magical properties that make it any more useful as a currency. I'm not a "gold aficionado" (author's term) but gold has plenty of "magical" qualities: it's fungible, divisible, universally recognized and easy to test, non-reactive, enduring, beautiful, scarce, and essentially indispensable for some industrial uses.

jlewis7272 9y ago
I agree. I felt he was stretching when trying to discredit golds "value". There is a reason gold is and has been a "hard" currency.
wu-ikkyu 9y ago
>universally recognized The value of gold is not universally recognized, and is inflated more from idolization than by its practical uses. >When I was older, I learned what the fighting was about that winter and the next summer. Up on the Madison Fork the Wasichus (white people) had found much of the yellow metal that they worship and that makes them crazy, and they wanted to have a road up through our country to the place where the yellow metal was... Our people knew there was yellow metal in little chunks up there; but they did not bother with it, because it was not good for anything. -Black Elk Speaks
- njarboe 9y ago
  People have used many things as "a token of delayed reciprocal altruism" in different times and locations. People in pre-Columbian North America used wampum and other items instead of gold for that token and, not surprisingly, would not find much value in a such a soft metal.
- Mattasher 9y ago
  I meant "universally recognized" as in famous/known.
placeybordeaux 9y ago
Using gold as a means of transaction below 100 USD becomes pretty hard. 1 dollar worth of gold is 1/40 grams. That is a tiny amount and you need a ~50 dollar scale to weigh that amount accurately. Gold theoretically has all of these nice properties, but the practicalities get pretty messy.
- oncemoreforgot 9y ago
  As I recall there were people selling thin strands of gold laminated to cards at a past porcfest. I don't remember the min denomination though and you would have to trust the weight they say.
  - ge96 9y ago
    Planet Money Linertarian Paradise They mentioned same thing about laminated gold.
  - placeybordeaux 9y ago
    Yeah it's just another form of trust based exchanges. And if you are going for trust based exchanges you can go debt based and be able to expand the supply to meet the demand. The advantage of bitcoin is that you only need to trust public/private key, no miner controls 51% of the mining power & you aren't experiencing an extremely powerful and sustained sybil attack.
- njarboe 9y ago
  That is one reason why silver has been also used along side gold for thousands of years.

jlewis7272 9y ago

I agree. I felt he was stretching when trying to discredit golds "value". There is a reason gold is and has been a "hard" currency.

wu-ikkyu 9y ago

>universally recognized The value of gold is not universally recognized, and is inflated more from idolization than by its practical uses. >When I was older, I learned what the fighting was about that winter and the next summer. Up on the Madison Fork the Wasichus (white people) had found much of the yellow metal that they worship and that makes them crazy, and they wanted to have a road up through our country to the place where the yellow metal was... Our people knew there was yellow metal in little chunks up there; but they did not bother with it, because it was not good for anything. -Black Elk Speaks

njarboe 9y ago
People have used many things as "a token of delayed reciprocal altruism" in different times and locations. People in pre-Columbian North America used wampum and other items instead of gold for that token and, not surprisingly, would not find much value in a such a soft metal.
Mattasher 9y ago
I meant "universally recognized" as in famous/known.

placeybordeaux 9y ago

Using gold as a means of transaction below 100 USD becomes pretty hard. 1 dollar worth of gold is 1/40 grams. That is a tiny amount and you need a ~50 dollar scale to weigh that amount accurately. Gold theoretically has all of these nice properties, but the practicalities get pretty messy.

oncemoreforgot 9y ago
As I recall there were people selling thin strands of gold laminated to cards at a past porcfest. I don't remember the min denomination though and you would have to trust the weight they say.
- ge96 9y ago
  Planet Money Linertarian Paradise They mentioned same thing about laminated gold.
- placeybordeaux 9y ago
  Yeah it's just another form of trust based exchanges. And if you are going for trust based exchanges you can go debt based and be able to expand the supply to meet the demand. The advantage of bitcoin is that you only need to trust public/private key, no miner controls 51% of the mining power & you aren't experiencing an extremely powerful and sustained sybil attack.
njarboe 9y ago
That is one reason why silver has been also used along side gold for thousands of years.