842
Currency (slrpnk.net)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world
59 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 1 point 9 months ago (3 children)

Yeah, and that's why crypto is not catching up well.
Kind of a chicken and egg thing.

But in case of Gold and Silver, there had to be some initial driving factor for when it was first popularised (before people just started mentally defaulting to it).
Even though archaeology suggests that there were some civilisations did use notational currency in times before the relatively modern, well known history, enough of them did go with Gold. And since this was during the time when long distance trade was way slower, I won't consider the case of some single power influencing everyone else without any other driving force behind Gold itself.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [+] 3 points 9 months ago (1 child)
    [deleted]
  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

    Yep, you got it.

    Gold and silver originally became commonplace as money, as currency, because they are excellent material to make coins out of.

    You can carry bits or coins of gold and silver on your person, and you can denominate them fairly easily, you can store them and they won't corrode, and its not that hard to weigh them or melt them down.

    Compare that to trying to haul around a backpack or trailer full of bigmacs.

    Yeah, they're pumped full of preservatives, but they won't last anywhere near as long as a non reactive metal.

    Nowadays... well, gold and silver are massively important components in computer technology.

    So they've got the historical basis as money, and the commodity basis of having a significant amount of vital industy dependant on them.

    Bitcoin people used to argue that bitcoin would be a superior currency to all other currencies for a myriad of reasons... but you will always need some kind of computer thing that is either made out of or at some stage of industrial production involves gold/silver/other metals to even be able to transact with bitcoin.

    In a modern, capitalist, international fiat currency context, you also can't escape some kind of supply/demand based on use case dynamic for currencies.

    Oh, your economy is imploding due to a debt/bond/stock/trade balance crisis?

    Less ongoing demand for holding your wealth in that economy's currency, even if it is in bonds that pay interest or stocks that are nominally appreciating.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triffin_dilemma

    We are currently basically reverting to a pre Breton Woods international monetary system as the USD implodes, central banks everywhere are hoarding and repatriating gold as the de facto international exchange mechanism, as geopolitical monetary turmoil rises.

    https://www.macrotrends.net/1437/sp500-to-gold-ratio-chart

    So basically, if at the beginning of 2024, you had $100k in the SP500, you would have ~$146k right now.

    If you had $100k of gold at the beginning of 2024... you would have ~$275k right now.

    Thats 1.46x vs 2.75x.

    That's gold outperforming the SP500 by 88%, in just over two years.

    That is a dying economy and currency.

    Gold went from about $2000/oz in early 2024 to about $5500/oz at time of me writing this.

    I think it was like a week ago that Goldman Sachs or somebody said gold might hit $5400 by the end of the year.

    https://www.kitco.com/news/article/2026-01-22/goldman-sachs-raises-2026-gold-price-target-5400oz-private-sector-joins

    Yep there it is.

    So uh, we did a year in a week.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago

    I think the fact that they're pretty, nonreactive, rare, and were available very early is huge here. Gold is just there sometimes, little flakes and beads washed to rhe surface. It's one of the only metals you find non metallurgical cultures using. From there it became valuable for jewelry and ritual objects because of its rarity and appearance, and once you have something durable, reworkable, and more desired than possessed it becomes a really easy thing to trade, especially when cross culturally valued.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent