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Pro points of gold: * It’s relatively rare and production is naturally very limited (in contrast to e.g. diamonds that can be produced from carbon) * It has a

Pro points of gold: * It’s relatively rare and production is naturally very limited (in contrast to e.g. diamonds that can be produced from carbon) * It has a special tax-free status in some legislations. * It can hardly be destroyed (you can easily loose your bitcoin when your hard disk dies) * it’s beautiful and you can use it for jewelry and art Seems like a good choice if you see the risk of inflation, or of a state taking your money.

fredfoobar 6y ago
> It’s relatively rare and production is naturally very limited (in contrast to e.g. diamonds that can be produced from carbon) What about the gold-rich asteroids we can mine? > It has a special tax-free status in some legislations. This is a non-starter for me, someone can lobby the government to undo this easily > It can hardly be destroyed (you can easily loose your bitcoin when your hard disk dies) You can literally lose gold, just like how you can "loose" your bitcoin (who stores bitcoin on their hard-drive now anyway, it's 2020, there are paper wallets too, in fact, I can literally memorize 12 words) > it’s beautiful and you can use it for jewelry and art Sorry, I don't wear jewelry.
- eMSF 6y ago
  >What about the gold-rich asteroids we can mine? Which asteroid(s) are you speaking of?
  - fredfoobar 6y ago
    https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-07-08/asteroid-16-psyche-and-all-that-gold-won-t-make-earth-richer https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-07-08/astero...
adventured 6y ago
Another important point is that it can be blended. Also, to add to the jewelry point, humanity has a nearly unlimited desire for luxury and will always seek out status, which is why so many thousands of years later humanity still has such an immense desire for gold jewelry when we very obviously don't need it. Status seeking is not going away. The continued expansion of human population, rising living standards and finite quantity of gold, ensures it will grow more scarce per capita (driving up its perceived value persistently). At the median our soon to be eight billion people will have a higher standard of living than when we had only one billion people. There isn't nearly enough gold to match that extraordinary change.
- fredfoobar 6y ago
  > "Status seeking is not going away" you are correct, but what is high status now may not be high status in the future. For example: it used to be high status to have gout, but not so much now.
maerF0x0 6y ago
other pros * It's very divisible allowing smaller denominations * It's soft enough to divide * You can carry a lot of value in a small volume/weight * It doesn't corrode (you can bury it, burn it) so it can be passed along generations
- fredfoobar 6y ago
  > * It's very divisible allowing smaller denominations So, you're telling me that I go up to buy something that is worth .25 oz in gold with a 1 oz gold coin, I can break it up on the spot and hand it the cashier?
  - tenebrisalietum 6y ago
    You probably would need some scissors. Supposedly (at least according to Quora) you can mold it with your hands. Of course this requires the gold coin is made of pure gold and not alloyed with another metal.
  - maerF0x0 6y ago
    It's very divisible because (as i understand it) Gold can be reformed back into larger units after broken down... whereas some things (say diamonds) actually lose value as they're broken down. a 1 carat diamond is worth less than 1/2 of a 2 carat Diamond. i've seen it go down to 1g of gold for ~$90 in today's prices.
gruez 6y ago
>* It has a special tax-free status in some legislations. don't you mean jurisdictions? >* It can hardly be destroyed (you can easily loose your bitcoin when your hard disk dies) >Seems like a good choice if you see the risk of [..] a state taking your money. This doesn't really make sense. Sure, you'd lose your bitcoin, but only if it was the only copy. Since bitcoin is stored as information, you can store as many copies as you want. You can't do that with gold. The non-physical nature probably makes it better than gold if you have a proper backup plan. Also, if your goal is to guard against someone (including the state) taking it, bitcoin is also hard to beat. Gold takes up space proportionately to how much you have, so it becomes harder to hide the more you have. With bitcoin you can hide an unlimited amount anywhere - between the pages of a book, under a rock in your garden, even inside your head.

fredfoobar 6y ago

> It’s relatively rare and production is naturally very limited (in contrast to e.g. diamonds that can be produced from carbon) What about the gold-rich asteroids we can mine? > It has a special tax-free status in some legislations. This is a non-starter for me, someone can lobby the government to undo this easily > It can hardly be destroyed (you can easily loose your bitcoin when your hard disk dies) You can literally lose gold, just like how you can "loose" your bitcoin (who stores bitcoin on their hard-drive now anyway, it's 2020, there are paper wallets too, in fact, I can literally memorize 12 words) > it’s beautiful and you can use it for jewelry and art Sorry, I don't wear jewelry.

eMSF 6y ago
>What about the gold-rich asteroids we can mine? Which asteroid(s) are you speaking of?
- fredfoobar 6y ago
  https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-07-08/asteroid-16-psyche-and-all-that-gold-won-t-make-earth-richer https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-07-08/astero...

adventured 6y ago

Another important point is that it can be blended. Also, to add to the jewelry point, humanity has a nearly unlimited desire for luxury and will always seek out status, which is why so many thousands of years later humanity still has such an immense desire for gold jewelry when we very obviously don't need it. Status seeking is not going away. The continued expansion of human population, rising living standards and finite quantity of gold, ensures it will grow more scarce per capita (driving up its perceived value persistently). At the median our soon to be eight billion people will have a higher standard of living than when we had only one billion people. There isn't nearly enough gold to match that extraordinary change.

fredfoobar 6y ago
> "Status seeking is not going away" you are correct, but what is high status now may not be high status in the future. For example: it used to be high status to have gout, but not so much now.

maerF0x0 6y ago

other pros * It's very divisible allowing smaller denominations * It's soft enough to divide * You can carry a lot of value in a small volume/weight * It doesn't corrode (you can bury it, burn it) so it can be passed along generations

fredfoobar 6y ago
> * It's very divisible allowing smaller denominations So, you're telling me that I go up to buy something that is worth .25 oz in gold with a 1 oz gold coin, I can break it up on the spot and hand it the cashier?
- tenebrisalietum 6y ago
  You probably would need some scissors. Supposedly (at least according to Quora) you can mold it with your hands. Of course this requires the gold coin is made of pure gold and not alloyed with another metal.
- maerF0x0 6y ago
  It's very divisible because (as i understand it) Gold can be reformed back into larger units after broken down... whereas some things (say diamonds) actually lose value as they're broken down. a 1 carat diamond is worth less than 1/2 of a 2 carat Diamond. i've seen it go down to 1g of gold for ~$90 in today's prices.

gruez 6y ago

>* It has a special tax-free status in some legislations. don't you mean jurisdictions? >* It can hardly be destroyed (you can easily loose your bitcoin when your hard disk dies) >Seems like a good choice if you see the risk of [..] a state taking your money. This doesn't really make sense. Sure, you'd lose your bitcoin, but only if it was the only copy. Since bitcoin is stored as information, you can store as many copies as you want. You can't do that with gold. The non-physical nature probably makes it better than gold if you have a proper backup plan. Also, if your goal is to guard against someone (including the state) taking it, bitcoin is also hard to beat. Gold takes up space proportionately to how much you have, so it becomes harder to hide the more you have. With bitcoin you can hide an unlimited amount anywhere - between the pages of a book, under a rock in your garden, even inside your head.