What’s the benefit of metal though? Doesn’t fiat cash work the same? Maybe I’m just showing my age but I can’t imagine bartering with coins - how do you divide or verify them?
Bitcoin denominated ecash may be a potential future for this type of transaction as well.
How many years do I have to spend studying what, to be able to verify that ecash is 100% private as some developers claim online? Given that I am a lifelong professional fighter and poet?
For now, sure, fiat cash is still better than metals. But with time it may be getting extinct. Also, even now, dependent on amounts and jurisdiction, in some places it is easier to legalize undeclared metals than undeclared fiat cash. Legalizing will not be a thing in the future, but now still might be needed in some cases.
To verify metals from fakes is relatively easy now. Just buy a device or have friends working at major traders.
In my experience, there are also big fees/spreads when first buying the metal. For instance, a friend bought an 100 ounce bar of silver and payed about a dollar over spot plus a $30 fee. Why not just coinjoin if you’re going to go through that trouble?
Not trying to be a metals hater, I just struggle to picture a world where it would be my first choice.
It does cost to use metals. I think it depends on how much private you want the transaction to be and how much you are ready to pay for that level of privacy. Let's say you were doing something noble but illegal, like being JStark II in Germany. Would you trust coinjoin or ecash or lightning to take payments? Maybe I am digitally illiterate, but I wouldn't. Fiat cash and metals only if I am JStark.
