I think I just understood why people have a hard time comparing Bitcoin and Gold. Gold is objective (its value is not, but its existence is), but Bitcoin is an intersubjective thing. In this regard it’s not different from Fiat currency. Bitcoin does not exists outside of our conscious mind.

Of course that is true for many many things and it does not make Bitcoin any less valuable. But somehow thinking about this makes me understand the old and wary folk a bit more.

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Discussion

Now do Diamonds

Bitcoin is a physical object—with better properties than gold. The substrate is just far more complex: a network of computers and electricity running them. But it is just as physical as gold. Gold failed as a monetary technology ~1000 years ago because its physical properties were not up to the task.