Nostr Web Client

I'm so tired of people old enough to be my child all like damn Boomers buy gold instead of Bitcoin.

Yo, gold is a shiny yellow rock. You can go to a store in the mall and buy it for cash bills. You can then put it wherever you want and it doesn't just disappear from there because you got the wrong software update, or clicked the wrong hyperlink, or whatever, as rocks aren't digital. They are rocks. And if you want to sell it, then you take it to a store in the mall and they give you cash bills back.

_Of course they buy gold instead of Bitcoin_, as Bitcoin is a gigantic, electronic PITA and people are constantly misplacing their Bitcoin keys along with their reading glasses and the document they were supposed to bring back to the car repair shop.

Reply to this note

Please Login to reply.

Discussion

Laeserin 🇻🇦 6d ago

If you have more than a few sats in Bitcoin, it's completely nerve-wracking.

William ₿ Travis 6d ago

What's nerve-wracking about it?

Laeserin 🇻🇦 6d ago

Anything digital constantly changes, even if you don't touch it. If you do touch it, you can break it or lock yourself out. If you lose access to it, it's completely inaccessible and you can never get it back and nobody can help you.

Laeserin 🇻🇦 6d ago

To be honest, I probably find it _more_ nerve-wracking than other people because I'm a software developer. Like, most people don't even know that the Bitcoin Network is something that constantly moves and changes.

Digital things degrade so rapidly and are constantly in flux and trending in different directions.

William ₿ Travis 6d ago

Thing is, gold is impossible to spend. When current fiat collapses, people aren't going to be able to transact in gold. It will only be silver or digital. I've self custodied bitcoin for eight years. No issues. And with Square bringing bitcoin payments online, using it is getting easier.

Laeserin 🇻🇦 6d ago

Yes, gold is very difficult to transact in, directly. You usually have to change it to something else, first.

Square is an American thing, like Venmo.

Everyone tells me that they've never had any problems with anything.

William ₿ Travis 6d ago

Putting money is a bank is nerve-wracking. Carrying gold into a store and leaving without it (and clearly with cash) is nerve-wracking. Getting out of your car at the gas station is nerve-wracking. Life is full of risks. The thing is to assess your own risk tolerance and go from there. The risks presented by hodling a scarce digital asset are more acceptable to me than the risks of doing anything else with money.

mIX 6d ago

Just gotta use it more and that will get less nerve-wracking. Knowledge is power. To many use it for savings, but don't learn.

CensorThis 6d ago

Survey says true..!

Matt 6d ago

The issue for me is that you have to trade it for the problem for it to be useful as a solution. That paradox is why it failed and is no longer money in any modern economy of meaningful scale. Having used both, I understand the anxieties of both. Gold was more anxiety provoking for me in general. I think this is a preference issue for the most part, but I don't think gold is an actual solution anymore. It's a hedge, but I don't want a hedge. I want a solution. People should just do whatever works best for them. That's not going to be the same for everyone. In a fiat world, I've made the case for using both to some extent.

Interestingly, I have no anxiety about having too little gold. I do have some anxiety about not having enough sats. Of course security is a concern (I've had to deal with gold in the pounds range and it wasn't a free lunch to secure either. It was harder and ultimately required trust and some external custody for me), but I don't treat my financial future like a repair shop document either. I can see both angles on this (due to experience), so I don't look down on anyone who wants some gold or whatever in the mix.

Matt 6d ago

Frankly, I'm all for someone holding gold if that's what they're comfortable with and I've encouraged people to do it in real life discussions about Bitcoin. I see it as a hedge, but more people hedging outside fiat still makes some difference, in my opinion.

Laeserin 🇻🇦 6d ago

I generally prefer Bitcoin to gold, but every time something unexpected or upsetting happens, I regret that. 😂 It's been a comedy of errors, from the start.

Comte de Sats Germain 6d ago 💬 1

IMO gold will be a common currency again, simultaneously with bitcoin. I know the "winner take all" theory is popular, but, well, it's wrong. What will change is the need for governments to stamp art on the gold because without debasement (taken away by bitcoin), there's no use for that art. People will use little gold pellets and have little handheld machines that vaporize the gold and run mass spectrometry on it to verify purity. The same machines will have built in bitcoin wallets and a QR display.

William ₿ Travis 6d ago

No chance it will be common currency. Even now, a 10th of an ounce is worth $400. Do you know how small a 10th oz coin is? There's no one who will go into a grocery store and be able to spend that coin, and no store will have small enough gold to give change. Now double the value of gold and figure out how to make the necessary divisibility work.

Laeserin 🇻🇦 6d ago 💬 1

Gold was never a common currency, for the broader population. They used copper, nickel, and silver.

Sat Nakamoto 6d ago 💬 1

If only we can figure out how to transmit gold over the wire.

Trivium 6d ago

The words "silver" and "money" are synonymous in several languages.

French: argent (both silver and money)

Hebrew: kesef (כֶּסֶף) (both silver and money)

Irish (Gaelic): airgead (both silver and money)

Scottish Gaelic: airgead (both silver and money)

Welsh: arian (both silver and money)

Breton: arc'hant (both silver and money)

Manx: argid (both silver and money)

Cornish: arghans (historical use for both)

Heuristic 6d ago

Well. Take into account #preciousmetalinflation which believe it or not will be a thing in less than a decade most likely.

Right now there is a finite amount on earth. But not for long. #spacemining will flood the market with gold, platinum and others. That will change the standard.

Of course, the mining companies can do the same as was done with diamonds. They are essentially just as common as quartz, just mined and hidden away to inflate value. #variables

Laeserin 🇻🇦 6d ago

I doubt it, but I think gold-backed transactions are making a comeback. You always need some second money for a conduit, tho.

ABH3PO 6d ago

Keeping gold in self custody can be pretty nerve wracking as well, it's a giant target to your person, and can be misplaced too.

Bitcoin is easier to hide. If there's bitcoin and gold in my house, I can easily hide bitcoin, I'd be worried about the gold though.

Laeserin 🇻🇦 6d ago

I think it's nuts to hold significant amounts of gold in your house, to be honest.

ABH3PO 6d ago

Bank locker? If you're fine with that, it would work for your bitcoin too.

Alex W 6d ago

its also nuts to NOT have it in your house. You dont want to depend on third parties.. And there we arrived at a diabolical contradiction; not your hold, not your gold… but too much gold and you’re robbed at some point.. lol.

PAKES 6d ago

Agree, Gold is lindy and will not disappear soon