0 sats \ 0 replies \ @scampy 13 Oct 2022 \ on: How do you guys feel about gold? Is there a second best? bitcoin
I once dabbled a bit in gold with this idea that it could be a hedge against Bitcoin failing, but ultimately sold it for more sats shortly after.
I kind of view gold as an altcoin, where:
- The supply is uncapped and unauditable
- Transactions are slow, costly and require either trust (swapping derivatives, trade by mail) or exposing yourself (trade in-person)
- Expensive to verify
- Not open source, cannot improve or evolve
- Difficult to secure. Has no signature schemes (multisig, passphrases, etc.)
To be fair, gold has maybe one or two advantages. It doesn't have an ongoing cost to maintain security (once it's out of the ground, that's that). And it always has a bottom floor in price thanks to its non-monetary usage (jewelry, electronics, medicine).
I don't consider gold's track history an advantage, similar to how the horse and cart didn't have an edge over the automobile due to seniority.
We won't be going back to trading shiny yellow rocks. If gold couldn't keep up in the 70's, it has zero chance half a century later where the speed of commerce has exploded.