7 ms·

Not true: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-31/venezuela-receives-last-shipment-of-repatriated-gold-bars-1-.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-31/v

• smackfu 13y ago
  True but these are both transferring gold so that the gold is in a different physical location, not transferring gold to pay someone. I'm sure both cases would much rather sell the gold in place A and buy it in place B, but that's just not possible at this quantity of gold.
  • fragsworth 13y ago
    The same can be done with bitcoins - because they do exist in physical locations (as many physical locations as you want, actually, but you probably don't want too many...)
• fragsworth 13y ago
  Not only is gold shipped frequently, it's also stolen frequently: http://rt.com/news/gold-shipment-stolen-france-304/ http://rt.com/news/gold-shipment-stolen-france-304/ http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/16/us-usa-miami-gold-idUSBRE94F0RM20130516 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/16/us-usa-miami-gold-...
  • socillion 13y ago
    Not only is Bitcoin sent frequently, it's also stolen frequently: http://rt.com/news/bitcoin-hacking-stolen-million-417/ http://rt.com/news/bitcoin-hacking-stolen-million-417/ http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/250-000-worth-bitcoins-stolen-net-heist-980871 http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/250-000-worth-bitcoins-sto... http://www.esecurityplanet.com/network-security/czech-bitcoin-exchange-bitcash.cz-hacked.html http://www.esecurityplanet.com/network-security/czech-bitcoi... edit: unrelated, someone should make an index of how many Bitcoin threads hit the front page of HN per day.
    • fragsworth 13y ago
      It's well-known that you can at least secure your bitcoins as well as you can secure gold, if you use cold wallets. The advantage, however, is you don't have to worry nearly as much about the security of a transaction (moving it from one place to another)
      • foobarqux 13y ago
        Not really. It is much easier to lose or make illegible a piece of paper or data than it is to lose large heavy gold or to damage the gold to a degree that severely reduces its value.
        • dragonwriter 13y ago
          OTOH, its hard to make redundant copies of a gold bar that retain the full value of the original so that if the original is damaged, nothing is lost.
        • foobarian 13y ago
          Actually, you could--you could irradiate the gold to the point where decontamination would cost on the order of the worth of the gold itself.
          • sejje 13y ago
            I don't know about you, but no, I can't do that.
          • reillyse 13y ago
            upvote for mentioning the evil scheming of a Bond villain in a serious conversation as a serious answer :)
          • foobarqux 13y ago
            No one said it was impossible to damage gold (there are easier wayd than to make it radioactive). It's just much harder compared to doing comparable or greater value destruction to a bitcoin address, especially accidentally.
  • asdfw88342432 13y ago
    This is a point that I can't help thinking about regularly. Gold and cash, at least 147 million dollars worth is physically difficult to store and transfer. In most cases it is also difficult to steal. The equivalent commodity value in BTC can be stored on a tiny rom, and transferred anywhere in the world for free from anywhere with network access. I hate to be cynical, because the ideals behind this currency seem nobel -- but I can't help but feel dread that it is only a matter of time before bad things start happening here. Is this outlook too negative?
• jasonwatkinspdx 13y ago
  Central banks moving gold reserves is very different from everyday financial transactions because reserves have a special status tied to their physicality. They act as a form of physically controlled collateral. Corporations and individuals generally do not move wealth via physical assets.
  • rsync 13y ago
    False, and trivially easy to demonstrate. Off the top of my head, I am thinking of ... - A deep, pervasive culture of gold hoarding and gold wealth transfer for dowries (yes, even in 2013) for Indians.[1] - Persians/Iranians who have a deep cultural link to carpets as a store of value that can be used in day to day life, but also transported and stored as value. How about any middle american over the age of 50 who counts his or her "vehicle" as an asset and shops/deals in used cars every 12-18 months. A lot of people think about cars this way. As for corporations just consider casino counting rooms and exxon tankers full of crude oil. [1] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-17/gold-laden-brides-in-india-defying-singh-as-culture-wins.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-17/gold-laden-brides-i...
    • jasonwatkinspdx 13y ago
      I think you need to google the definition of 'generally'. A list of narrative exemplars does not refute an assertion of proportion. Like the first google result for payments volume yeilds this: http://www.gfmag.com/component/content/article/119-economic-data/12528-payments-volumes-worldwide-new.html#axzz2lRIkExrN http://www.gfmag.com/component/content/article/119-economic-... As you can see, credit transfers dwarf everything. It's worth noting that all of these payment types are cleared electronically (including checks). I sincerely doubt gold bugs and Persian carpet fans are trading at total volumes of 100's of trillions of fucking dollars globally.
• ma2rten 13y ago
  Is orders of magnitudes larger than 150$, I am pretty sure $150 million are usually wired.