I'm not a gold bug and I see many problems with using gold as a currency, namely that the amount of currency in circulation should depend on how much stuff we can dig out of the ground. (In the case of BTC something about how many times a SHA-256 hash can be calculated.)
The idea that gold fell out of use as currency because of industrialization is either a completely new discovery in economics, or completely wrong. I'm pretty sure it's the latter.
I don't think the Bretton woods system counts. That's between countries, I'm talking about everyday preference for gold by individuals. I suppose I should have said specie instead.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102
I'm not a gold bug and I see many problems with using gold as a currency, namely that the amount of currency in circulation should depend on how much stuff we can dig out of the ground. (In the case of BTC something about how many times a SHA-256 hash can be calculated.)
The idea that gold fell out of use as currency because of industrialization is either a completely new discovery in economics, or completely wrong. I'm pretty sure it's the latter.