this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2025
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[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 25 points 10 months ago (4 children)

To be fair, gold is the same. It's just more well established since it's been around much longer.

Not defending this shit, just pointing out that gold is also only worth what people are willing to pay for it. That's kind of how all markets work.

[–] vxx@lemmy.world 49 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Gold works without energy. It doesnt oxidise or decay as other materials

[–] thisorthatorwhatever@lemmy.world 19 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Seriously when people say gold is worthless, what a joke. There is very little of it, as you mentioned it doesn't oxidize, it's the metal used in microchips. It ain't sea shells or tulip bulbs or Bitcoin, that's for sure.

[–] vxx@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I would agree for the case that we're truly in end times where nobody has anything and people fight over scraps of food, that gold might be worthless.

It's still your best bet for all other scenarios that don't involve you hiding in a cave and eating bugs.

[–] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

And even THEN, gold is a shiny, pretty metal that doesn't oxidize like other shiny metals. So the tyrants of the apocalyptic wastelands will STILL want it for jewelry.

[–] vxx@lemmy.world -1 points 10 months ago

I think that's the moment you don't want to have Gold on you.

[–] AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You think the end times are going to be characterized by no one having anything?

[–] vxx@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I think the end times is the short period before the end.

If it is sudden, gold does matter even less.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 10 months ago

Did I say it was worthless? It's worth whatever people are willing to pay for it for its industrial purposes. That's it.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (5 children)

If I was starving gold would still be worthless to me, regardless of how it oxidizes.

[–] SilverCode@lemm.ee 39 points 10 months ago (3 children)

With a bar of gold you can crush someone's skull in and steal their food. Try do that with Bitcoin.

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

You can use Bitcoin miners for that

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

Or feast on the delicious goo that comes out

[–] Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago

horrific Viserys noises

[–] BussyCat@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If all society broke down and all currencies became worthless gold would still have value as it has intrinsic value due to its chemical properties. Bitcoin would be worth nothing

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world -2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There are easier and cheaper means of exchange. Indigenous people all over the world had access to gold but used it for decoration and not trade.

[–] BussyCat@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Gold is pretty damn “cheap” to use as a currency it’s a softer metal with a lower melting point which allows it to be easily minted and then since its properties are somewhat unique it makes it harder to counterfeit without more complex technology. It is also rare enough that small bits of it can be used for currency so you don’t have to use something like the giant stone discs of yap. Some places used food for currency like rice or cocoa beans but those had too little value per unit of currency which made them annoying.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I really suggest you read Graeber’s “Debt” to get a more complete picture of how economies can work. It’s not all giant stone discs.

Plus there’s tons of ways gold can be adulterated. Devaluing gold currency is incredibly easy, as is shaving or sweating the coins to get your own gold.

[–] BussyCat@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago

I already mentioned that gold wasn’t the only option and talked about how other civilizations did it but the vast majority of the world used metals because they were the best. Nowadays it really doesn’t matter because the value of wealth in the world vastly exceeds what all the precious metals would be worth combined. But if all the nukes go off, society is destroyed, and technology is thrown back hundreds of years, then gold still has a purpose and people will happily barter for it since they know someone else will want it. Bitcoin will not have value.

You can try and come up with whatever justification you want but as you are just downvoting everything I say I am done arguing

[–] piecat@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Which is why they airlift bundles of cash when there’s a famine and not, you know, food.

[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Gold coins are very filling

[–] Redditsux@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

If you had gold and you are starving, then you deserve to die.

[–] shawn1122@lemm.ee 17 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

The difference is gold has carried high monetary value among human societies for nearly 3000 years while Bitcoin is a non tangible digital asset that's existed for less than two decades and remains incredibly volatile.

This comes across as another Trump scam. He's going to bankrupt the American government by siphoning public money to himself and other private entities and the American people are going to be stuck hodling the bag.

[–] Wahots@pawb.social 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That, and gold actually has properties that make it useful, like not oxidizing and being a good conductor. It still has value even if it was otherwise worthless as a currency

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works -2 points 10 months ago

If bitcoin was otherwise worthless as a currency, then it would still be useful for secure time stamps.

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

This comes across as another Trump scam.

I guarantee his family and "friends" already own a lot of BTC.

[–] BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Gold has value by itself, just look up it's applications in the semiconductor industry

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Outside of money, PoW blockchains are useful for secure time stamps.

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Why single out PoW? PoS also documents hashes immutably over time.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 10 months ago

Because then people would have to admit that bitcoin isn't crypto, and PoS consumes something like 99.9% less power than PoW.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago

Because we're talking about value by itself, outside of money. So HashCash for emails is useful even if there's no money involved, but locking up a dozen Stanley Nickels doesn't cost anything.

[–] WuceBrillis@lemm.ee 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Hey everybody, check out THIS metal, its all yellowy and pretty!

[–] scroll_responsibly@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] shawn1122@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago

And is malleable enough to allow for coinage.