Ive never been able to understand the concept of gold. Why is it so valuable? How do countries know that the amount of gold being held by other countries? Who audits these gold reserves to make sure the gold isn’t fake? In the event of a major war would you trade food for gold? feel like people would trade goods for different goods in such a dramatic event. I have potatoes and trade them for fruit type stuff. Is gold the same scam as diamonds? Or how is gold any different than Bitcoin?
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Gold holds value because there is a set amount of it on the planet. This makes it inflation proof because no government can arbitrarily print more gold.
They don’t, really.
No one. Most countries switched off the gold standard and over to fiat-based currency where money is just worth whatever the government says it’s worth, and other countries value it depending on how wealthy the country is. The US, for example, is not letting any inspectors into Fort Knox to see how much gold is actually there.
If the country you live in has a coup and the money is now worthless as happened historically in Germany or Zimbabwe, for example, you might have a small, fungible amount of valuable substance such as gold to help you escape to someplace safer or buy goods along your journey
Gold isn’t exactly the same scam as diamonds. Diamonds have no inherent worth and their price is kept artificially high by a cartel system headed by De Beers.
Gold is a thing that actually exists and cannot easily be faked unlike bitcoin. Gold is also a commodity, so you can find a buyer for it anywhere and they will give you the same value day to day.
Gold does not meaningfully appreciate though. As the saying goes, in the times of ancient Greece, an ounce of gold buys a fine suit of clothes. Today, an ounce of gold also buys a fine suit of clothes. This is why using your money to buy gold to just hang out in your vault is not a sound investment, because it will not become valuable more quickly than inflation so you can’t make money with it versus just putting it in an index fund or buying stocks.
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