[gunshai]

I'm not really sure why people opine about not using the gold standard.

Especially crypo-enthusiasts or even libertarians (I consider my self tangent to both these groups).

Gold is terrible for the following reasons.

* Supply is unknown so your market cap value is volatile to any sudden prospected windfall. This one is ESPECIALLY bad if you are a central government. Why would a central bank want to be beholden (with respect to purchasing power) to some random gold find that devalues the currency unexpectedly? (see wiki article about Mansa Musa who just went around destroying local economies because he just literally threw his gold around.)

* Gold is not very divisible, in that there are real costs to trying to divide the mint.

* Gold comes with high storage/security costs (especially if it is your currency back).

* Gold isn't really that transferable, the stuff is a pain in the ass to actually move around.

Gold has two things going for it.

1. It has manufacturing uses that provide real world value

2. Through out time people have a perception that it should have value. This perception spans across cultures and geography.

[rglover]

There's no opining about it. It was the best solution at the time and removing it eliminated the last remaining dam preventing absolute corruption of our money by the state.

https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/