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0 pointsbufferoverflow1y ago0 comments

BTC is better than gold in many regards.

- impossible to counterfeit

- trivial to audit

- easy to transfer

- easier to store

- its supply is actually limited (unlike gold, which is near-infinite in the universe). Most of it has been mined. Its supply will actually diminish over time, as keys get lost forever, though it's hard to tell how fast that process is.

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16594470911y ago

And completely worthless in the event of war with attacks on power grids electronics etc. Gold on the other hand, I could trade for food.

bufferoverflowOP1y ago

If you are at a war where your whole electric grid and internet and SMS are completely down, you have much bigger problems than currency not working.

It means your bank accounts are gone, your credit cards are gone.

And how are you actually going to use gold as currency? Walk into a shop and shave off some gold at the checkout? And how will the store owner authenticate that it's actually gold?

Bullets will be a better currency than gold in that scenario.

16594470911y ago

Trading jewelry for goods in desperate times is a thing. Even desperation in current times has examples of this. Pawn shops advertise in large letters that they buy gold.

But I agree, bullets are always a better currency; one of the positives (for people who responsibly enjoy firearms) living where I do is minimal restriction on such things.

lesuorac1y ago

I'm not sure war even needs to be that large for it to be a problem.

Basically unless its like China vs US then you don't need sell BTC to fund the country (even then I don't think you would; but if you never need to sell BTC its pointless).

If China vs US then realistically, China can and probably will cut a lot of the internet traffic between the two. Bitcoin only functions because of the public ledger; if Chinese miners aren't sync'd with non-Chinese miners then you have a double-spend problem and I can't see bitcoin not going to 0 pretty quickly.

InfiniteTitan1y ago

> And how will the store owner authenticate that it's actually gold?

Umm this is a solved problem. Believe it or not gold has been used as currency for thousands of years.

1 more reply

sadeshmukh1y ago

Gold is similarly useless when it's heavy and hard to move. There is little chance of that, and Bitcoin offers advantages in ease of transfer, transparency of transactions, and lack of government interference.

InfiniteTitan1y ago

> Heavy and hard to move

This only applies to very large amounts of monetary value. $1m USD is currently under 24lb/10.7kg.

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fragmede1y ago

Can you? What use is gold in the Mad Max era?

dragonwriter1y ago

> its supply is actually limited (unlike gold, which is near-infinite in the universe)

100% (to very many significant figures) of the gold in the universe has a sufficiently near infinite cost to deliver to the surface of the earth that it is irrelevant to any discussion of human economics; once that subset is eliminated, the available supply of gold is quite finite.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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16594470911y ago

And completely worthless in the event of war with attacks on power grids electronics etc. Gold on the other hand, I could trade for food.

bufferoverflowOP1y ago

If you are at a war where your whole electric grid and internet and SMS are completely down, you have much bigger problems than currency not working.

It means your bank accounts are gone, your credit cards are gone.

And how are you actually going to use gold as currency? Walk into a shop and shave off some gold at the checkout? And how will the store owner authenticate that it's actually gold?

Bullets will be a better currency than gold in that scenario.

16594470911y ago

Trading jewelry for goods in desperate times is a thing. Even desperation in current times has examples of this. Pawn shops advertise in large letters that they buy gold.

But I agree, bullets are always a better currency; one of the positives (for people who responsibly enjoy firearms) living where I do is minimal restriction on such things.

lesuorac1y ago

I'm not sure war even needs to be that large for it to be a problem.

Basically unless its like China vs US then you don't need sell BTC to fund the country (even then I don't think you would; but if you never need to sell BTC its pointless).

InfiniteTitan1y ago

> And how will the store owner authenticate that it's actually gold?

Umm this is a solved problem. Believe it or not gold has been used as currency for thousands of years.

1 more reply

sadeshmukh1y ago

InfiniteTitan1y ago

> Heavy and hard to move

This only applies to very large amounts of monetary value. $1m USD is currently under 24lb/10.7kg.

1 more reply

fragmede1y ago

Can you? What use is gold in the Mad Max era?

dragonwriter1y ago

> its supply is actually limited (unlike gold, which is near-infinite in the universe)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse