| > It's digital currency without counterparty risk and no inflation risk. Similar to why gold is useful as a store of value. Not being able to reverse transactions is itself a risk, and a deflationary currency that is susceptible to hoarding isn't a great idea IMHO. And given gold's fluctuating value (though better than BTC's), I'm not sure I'd consider it a good store of value; it certainly isn't a good inflation hedge: * https://www.nber.org/papers/w18706 * https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3667789 Neither in the short-term, nor the longer-term: > Andre Sharon, head of the international research department at Drexel Burnham, Inc., notes, “the value of gold essentially derives from its capacity to preserve real capital and purchasing power.”† I select this particular quotation because of the prestige of the organization and the position of the spokesman, but statements in this vein can be found in great numbers. They can be traced back for generations and in many countries. How can this proposition so contrary to statistical fact become so widely believed and quoted? Possibly because gold has preserved capital in cataclysmic cases it is easy to infer that it can be trusted to do the same in less severe circumstances. To extrapolate from gold’s protection in singular catastrophes to its use as a strategy against cyclical infation is an example of faulty inductive reasoning. * PDF: http://csinvesting.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/RoyJastram... * https://www.pwlcapital.com/will-gold-save-the-day/ And being gold-backed does not help with price stability either: * https://archive.is/FWKcL / https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/why-the... In fact, having a currency / monetary base that cannot be easy grown can hinder economic growth: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Bullion_Famine The sooner countries abandoned the gold standard, the sooner they started recovering from the Great Depression: * https://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/10/the-great-depression-... |