[everfree]

> This is not the case with gold.

Silver, platinum, palladium, rhodium, copper...

Just as people have generally centered around gold, people have so far generally centered on Bitcoin. There's a great deal of other metals and a great deal of other cryptocurrencies, but if nobody really cares about them, then they are not relevant to the conversation.

[GauntletWizard]

Gold has actual use. At minimum, gold is worth the value of it's conductivity properties, or of it's high malleability, high density, low reactivity and low toxicity, or it's pretty looks. Bitcoin has none of those going for it except maybe the looks (to anyone who has a copy of the "pretty" Blockchain)

[ls15]

> palladium, rhodium

Sidenote: Both of them have surpassed gold in terms of pricing for a while recently. Not every cryptocurrency is valuable, but some can be if they can fill a gap like palladium and rhodium, that were mostly useless metals 100 years ago.

[jjnoakes]

You can't make new rare elements out of thin air though.

[meowkit]

If you had enough energy and the right equipment/process you could "alchemize" gold or any other element out of Oxygen/Carbon/Nitrogen.

[everfree]

Sure you can. Create a new chemical and call it a "rare substance". It will probably get about as little traction as the long tail of 99% of the cryptocurrencies out there.

[_3u10]

Much like Bitcoin gold has virtually no uses (outside of being worth money)