• Boomer Humor Doomergod@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    There are easier and cheaper means of exchange. Indigenous people all over the world had access to gold but used it for decoration and not trade.

    • BussyCat@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      Gold is pretty damn “cheap” to use as a currency it’s a softer metal with a lower melting point which allows it to be easily minted and then since its properties are somewhat unique it makes it harder to counterfeit without more complex technology. It is also rare enough that small bits of it can be used for currency so you don’t have to use something like the giant stone discs of yap. Some places used food for currency like rice or cocoa beans but those had too little value per unit of currency which made them annoying.

      • Boomer Humor Doomergod@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        I really suggest you read Graeber’s “Debt” to get a more complete picture of how economies can work. It’s not all giant stone discs.

        Plus there’s tons of ways gold can be adulterated. Devaluing gold currency is incredibly easy, as is shaving or sweating the coins to get your own gold.

        • BussyCat@lemmy.world
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          19 hours ago

          I already mentioned that gold wasn’t the only option and talked about how other civilizations did it but the vast majority of the world used metals because they were the best. Nowadays it really doesn’t matter because the value of wealth in the world vastly exceeds what all the precious metals would be worth combined. But if all the nukes go off, society is destroyed, and technology is thrown back hundreds of years, then gold still has a purpose and people will happily barter for it since they know someone else will want it. Bitcoin will not have value.

          You can try and come up with whatever justification you want but as you are just downvoting everything I say I am done arguing