Laeserin @Laeserin - 14h
I'm so tired of people old enough to be my child all like damn Boomers buy gold instead of Bitcoin. Yo, gold is a shiny yellow rock. You can go to a store in the mall and buy it for cash bills. You can then put it wherever you want and it doesn't just disappear from there because you got the wrong software update, or clicked the wrong hyperlink, or whatever, as rocks aren't digital. They are rocks. And if you want to sell it, then you take it to a store in the mall and they give you cash bills back. _Of course they buy gold instead of Bitcoin_, as Bitcoin is a gigantic, electronic PITA and people are constantly misplacing their Bitcoin keys along with their reading glasses and the document they were supposed to bring back to the car repair shop.
If you have more than a few sats in Bitcoin, it's completely nerve-wracking.
Matt @Matt - 14h
The issue for me is that you have to trade it for the problem for it to be useful as a solution. That paradox is why it failed and is no longer money in any modern economy of meaningful scale. Having used both, I understand the anxieties of both. Gold was more anxiety provoking for me in general. I think this is a preference issue for the most part, but I don't think gold is an actual solution anymore. It's a hedge, but I don't want a hedge. I want a solution. People should just do whatever works best for them. That's not going to be the same for everyone. In a fiat world, I've made the case for using both to some extent. Interestingly, I have no anxiety about having too little gold. I do have some anxiety about not having enough sats. Of course security is a concern (I've had to deal with gold in the pounds range and it wasn't a free lunch to secure either. It was harder and ultimately required trust and some external custody for me), but I don't treat my financial future like a repair shop document either. I can see both angles on this (due to experience), so I don't look down on anyone who wants some gold or whatever in the mix.
Frankly, I'm all for someone holding gold if that's what they're comfortable with and I've encouraged people to do it in real life discussions about Bitcoin. I see it as a hedge, but more people hedging outside fiat still makes some difference, in my opinion.
Anything digital constantly changes, even if you don't touch it. If you do touch it, you can break it or lock yourself out. If you lose access to it, it's completely inaccessible and you can never get it back and nobody can help you.
To be honest, I probably find it _more_ nerve-wracking than other people because I'm a software developer. Like, most people don't even know that the Bitcoin Network is something that constantly moves and changes. Digital things degrade so rapidly and are constantly in flux and trending in different directions.
They can just hold a gun to your head and demand you give them your keys. Or kidnap your kids. It's a whole business.
Laeserin @Laeserin - 13h
I generally prefer Bitcoin to gold, but every time something unexpected or upsetting happens, I regret that. 😂 It's been a comedy of errors, from the start.
Laeserin @Laeserin - 6h
Yes, gold is very difficult to transact in, directly. You usually have to change it to something else, first. Square is an American thing, like Venmo. Everyone tells me that they've never had any problems with anything.
I think it's nuts to hold significant amounts of gold in your house, to be honest.
I actually find that it is the opposite. Nobody knows how much gold I have, but every Bitcoin transaction is transparently recorded.
This is where Bitcoin quickly starts getting overly technical and a bit shady, and everyone not wanting to live their life in a remote mountain castle in a green body-stocking heads for the exit.
It's an element you can buy with cash. That makes the entire transaction highly fungible. Fungibility is the basis for anonymity.
I doubt it, but I think gold-backed transactions are making a comeback. You always need some second money for a conduit, tho.
Yes, but the numbers aren't being recorded along with each transaction.
Gold was never a common currency, for the broader population. They used copper, nickel, and silver.
