I am still trying to figure out why something that seems only to be valuable because of its salability, scarcity and neutrality has such a grip on our lives when our most innate instinct is the perpetuation of this physical vessel known as our body. The majority of it is even used as jewelry. Basically it has an aesthetic beauty. I am trying to find the intrinsic value of it to our existence. I’m guessing there is none outside of the material beauty of it. Some royal or aristocrat aeons ago put a stamp on gold, the constituents followed and up to this day it has so to speak a weight on our lives but even at that something else took over that has even less “value” … FIAT!
I said all this to say, or rather ask, WHY NOT BITCOIN? WHY NOT ETH? WHY NOT ADA? I guess it simply comes down to as many many many people before me have figured out, Adoption! If everyone (at least the overwhelming majority) is in agreement, then let it be. I am starting to understand why the bullishness on BTC and other ALTCOINS is growing and growing and it really is possible to implement it. Adoption!
After all, big money was late to the game but now they are trying it seems to hoard all the crypto spaces with their typical methods of manipulation. Or did they initiate it knowing that the system currently in use had an expiration date as is painfully obvious at the moment? A topic for another day…
Please forgive my ramblings, I´m just having fun learning about this money stuff. Never had an interest in it whatsoever before this course. So yeah, just enjoying the ride.
For now, back to reality! Gotta get that MONEY to SURVIVE 
Well said! I agree 100%. All boils down to adoption. I am hoping the “decentralized” nature of this space is not in some manner corrupted by “big money”.
hehe…I do agree and I’ve seen it lead can be tuned into gold… ha horrible.
Anyway I also agree on the mistake we all make sometimes evaluating gold with its equivalent into any currency, as Matren and some others say the price of gold’s been the same through the years it’s our currencies that have been loosing value and that is not stopping. We need real money to shield ourserves.
Gold and Silver are not going away, and will always be money they are just difficult to store, manage and transport in larger quantities. (Not good for doomsday…ha)
Blockchain adapts to needs of today and the comming future, I don’t know if it will be BTC or not but blockchain is here to solve many of our problems.
In my opion BTC and Gold are both good to have.
What if there is more gold “out there” than we have been led to believe? The data around Chocolate Mountain is a perfect example. This could mean that gold is not as scarce as once thought. Here is a link to an article written by Bix Weir: http://www.24hgold.com/english/contributor.aspx?article=2650967238G10020&contributor=Treasures+and+Gold+Fever
It is very interesting how one metal keeps its value and now how technology is challenging this concept - I think we have to keep in mind that we as a society have constucted “money” as a medium of exchange and will ultimatly asign a new way to do so.
Considering the history and use that Gold has been given or provided, I think it is safe to say that we might be enterting into a hybride system, on the one hand we have legacy systems and people that will need physical “money” and the other half well oriented technology groups that will push digital money.
Hopefully we can have a meeting point to move forward without the necessary manipulation that the central banks and goverments have at this present moment.
Gold was the most prized metal from the earliest historic times due to its principle qualities. It was scarce but not too scarce, easy to work but durable, it was chemically neutral and didn’t tarnish or adversely effect other materials, and above all it was beautiful. Coins and small ingots minted out of gold were widely adopted for commerce because of its fungibility, mobility, and salability.
Gold coins were universally accepted no matter which symbol was stamped on them since it could be weighed therefore it was trustless, meaning you didn’t need to trust the government or the bearer to determine the value. You could test it yourself with a scale.
Other elements were not as useful. Gas and liquid elements obviously weren’t suitable as well as elements that were volatile or hazardous. Some elements were too rare or too difficult to work or too common or weren’t durable enough to make into coins. Gold, silver and copper were the most useful and they were valued based on their relative rarity. Also silver and copper tarnished so they were not as highly prized.
Bitcoin is the real money. i have my freedom and time which is valuable. Bitcoin is accessible to all and is not large or heavy. can be transferred and shared. its the greatest store of value in the technology era.
Bitcoin is salable-its accessible to all.
Bitcoin is scalable-can be sold as whole or bits that anyone can afford. its not elitist.
its deflatory and capped at a maximum supply. Meaning it becomes scarce with each halving and can be used by millions of people and institutions as store of value
it can be easily transferred online across multiple territories. Borderless and decentralised
A fairly stable asset & commodity source for the time being, however one wonders when mining on the moon (& possibly Mars too) commences, &/if large quantities of gold are discovered what that will entail for the future price & market direction.
In comparison with BTC being ‘digital gold’ & finite in number, once mining is completed then there’s zero chance of a huge amount being suddenly dumped into the market.
Why Gold as money? Gold doesn’t disseminate into the air, it doesn’t blast into flames, and it doesn’t harm or illuminate the holder. It is adequately uncommon to make it hard to overproduce and pliant to mint into coins, bars, and blocks. Human advancements have reliably utilized gold as a material of significant worth.
Gold is a sound form of money. Could not be easy to use as physical today, but crypto gold is a serious candidate because it is easier to send it from P2P in a few seconds. You can check your remaining balance very easily, you dont need to carry on with it in your pocket and you know exactly how much is the total supply. Of course digital ages are here and now is only the beginning of digital empire.
Money vs Currencies battle!!
Great insightful question Wade.
Certainly both gold and bitcoin are stores of value, as well as speculative investments, but to say bitcoin (or gold) will be the winner as a currency will not be relevent going forward.
It assumes the standstill of the industry.
More likely, in my opinion, blockchain technology will create all manor of exchangeable assets that will supplant all fiat currencies. They will all have different properties and be backed by different companies that provide different kinds of value to the human race. Citizens will choose and transact with those they feel connected to, while blockchain software will automatically calculate the exchanges between each currency used.
Gold is scarce, physically inert and stable and perceived value is accepted by all.
Gold as Money
Civilizations have consistently used gold as a material of value because it is rare, difficult to overproduce and it is malleable to mint into coins, bars, and bricks. In other words gold is portable, durable, divisible, fungible and store of value for a long period of time. These characteristics are very much desired for any medium of exchange.
The downside of silver is that it tarnishes over time and platinum has higher melting point ca. 1770° C in contrast to gold ca. 1063° C.
The gold as money shows that money has its value just like gold and has a durable hold to its currency.
Yes. I would also like to find out where that 3000 came from and what it is.
Thans
for anyone more interested in this topic, I highly recommend the book “Guide to Investing in Gold and Silver” by Michael Maloney and Robert Kiyosaki
https://pdfroom.com/books/guide-to-investing-in-gold-silver/p0q2J36Z5xE
gold is money because we humans put up criteria for money and it met up most (not all like the ease of moving across). So, is bitcoin money because it meetup the same criteria but is even more than that, with easy to move across with less physical risk associated with carrying gold around.
For example, if I have 1Bitcoin (Worth $50,000 as of writing 12thSept2021) in my wallet gives me no tension travelling anywhere in the world but I dear not carry $50,000 worth of onze of Gold almost anywhere in the world and not need security escort or risk my life been taken for the gold by robbers.
I suppose bitcoin scarcity and the adoption of bitcoin halving could be the considerable factor that makes it more valuable than altcoins as well as better alternative to gold in this digital era.