Actually, they are both wrong. The billionaires funding the project would be billionaires² and we would remain under their thumb.

Sorry to disappoint, but analyses of Psyche 16 point to it being composed of iron, nickel, carbon, rock, and silicate. It's mass is too light for it to be composed primarily of metal. For it to be mostly iron-nickel, it would be 50% internally porous, which is highly unlikely for it's size. Gold is far more dense than iron.

On the up side, everyone rich enough to have been hording their wealth in gold would also be poor.

Might make some electronics cheaper. I never really thought about it much but the logic gates in processors are all made from Silicon which is literally the most common element in the crust of the earth, in theory we should be able to make more RAM than anybody could ever want.

We still will be poor as rats but with fancy gold necklaces.

Dumbpublican: so you're telling me there's a chance...

Why did I think gold was more electrically conductive than copper? Apparently it's not and silver is even more conductive than copper. The same is true with thermal conductivity as well.

Just wait until they figure out how many quintillions of precious metals are in the earth...

De Beers, seeing an opportunity

I suppose its market value might depend on which organization(s) retrieves/owns it. De Beers controlled and artificially inflated the market value of diamonds for like a century. IIRC they still own almost half of the global diamond supply today.

Movie idea: A very stupid superhero and a slightly less stupid supervillain work together to crash Gold Asteroid on Earth. They are assisted by a very suicidal scientist.

Mansa Musa has entered the chat