19 Comments
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M C's avatar

Call me when Satoshi Nakamoto reveales wether he is a Democrat or Republicon,

Then I will tell you why I dont trust him & his cyber gold.

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JustPlainBill's avatar

Perhaps I'm missing something, but this just sounds like a way to create ETF shares on the blockchain. And eventually it will have all of the attendant problems.

And wait until we get wrapped coins as markers for other wrapped coins. The possibilities are endless...

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Petra Kehr's avatar

Reminds me of the late medival times in Venetia, when Goldsmiths offered there customers accomodation of their valuables in his vault. In return for a receipt. The birth of "paper money" After some time the Goldsmiths recognized that people had started to exchange their papers rather than their Gold. And so they started to give out more receipts than was backed by the Gold in their vaults. It´s all old stuff, happened before. Today looks more sophisticated to fool the - better educated - peasants of today but.........

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Mark Beekmans's avatar

Great article but I see two (the most important problems). The first is the vulnerability of the blockchain itself. The second is more important, the "trust" we still have to put in the ones storing and protecting the real assets, in this case physical gold. The ones operating the vaults, having the key so to say. Similarly to bitcoin where the keyholders are the real ones possessing the bitcoin and you not. Similar with physical gold. If you have it in your hand it´s yours. If it´s stored somewhere it a lot more unsure.

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Chris Wormald's avatar

Bitcoin is great as long as the cryptographic primitives that underpin it still hold. Roy Sebag (Gold Money) always talked about 'primacy', the key aspect that straight-out ownership of gold had over everything else. Love the article!

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Emily Loewenthal's avatar

Have ya’ll heard of hedera hbar? Could see it on the hashgraph/blockchain

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D Bergy's avatar

When it can be accepted and converted to physical gold at a dealer or other outlet such as Costco, then it is real.

Since Costco already sells gold, it would be in their best interest to make this arrangement a real thing. They would get millions in free publicity and garner a whole new segment of customers. This very idea was pitched to them about a year ago using a different gold backed coin. They were not interested. A lot of shortsightedness on their part. No one has pitched Sam’s Club or Walmart yet. The first adopter reaps the benefits.

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Nicholas Banfield's avatar

Clear as mud . I don’t understand it and keeping out . Sticking to my precious metals which has worked very well for me and I can understand it .

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JustPlainBill's avatar

Really!

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Allan Richard Wasem's avatar

F#$&*@g Bullshit. THERE'S NOTHING THERE!!! LITERALLY!!! NOTHING!!!

Equivalent to the contemporary value of the answer to the question: "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?"

BUY (GENERICALLY) GOLD, GUNS AND GRUB!

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BowTiedPermie's avatar

This sounds great in practice but in reality the peril is real.

If everything is tokenized do we own or possess anything?

Secondarily, the security issues of any crypto"currency" or use of a blockchain must be considered before an individual can make an educated decision to begin using the blockchain and all the "products" available. They are public for a reason.That aspect is completely overlooked by the average person interacting with them.

I was surprised to hear Charles Calomiris is in favor of the stablecoins, a type of crypto"currency." Their adoption rate is going to increase, especially with the new rules that are being passed or have already passed.

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John Galt's avatar

My power just went down. Now what?

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Bill G's avatar

With Trump setting up to appoint himself Fed Chair, I think we need to be open to anything, The only saving grace I see is that if Powell runs out his full term. That will only leave numb nuts 5 or 6 months to destroy the economy. There is a reason why monetary policy has been kept out of the reach of politicians.

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Chicago Phil's avatar

Someone has to hold the physical gold. Also transacting in gold is a capital gains taxable event in the US for now.

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JJ789's avatar

Sounds great, but no thanks.

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Pete McLaughlin's avatar

Gold in someone else’s vault always has the problem of “will i be able to get it if I need it” and cryptos have the problem of proving that they are not being created with no gold to back them.

In other words it is just another form of fiat money but with the downside that my every transaction can be traced and the bank can freeze my account any time they wish. No Thanks!

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Mark Beekmans's avatar

I share this concern. The level of "trust" is what makes it vulnerable and therefore not a solution.

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JJ789's avatar

"Gold in someone else’s vault always has the problem of “will i be able to get it if I need it . . . .” That's certainly one concern. The other is whether my gold is actually in the vault and not re-hypothicated to multiple parties. I know the blockchain is supposed to make that impossible, but it's all a bunch of opaque bullsh*t to me. But I'm just a simple old country bumpkin so what do I know . . . .

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JRCCreasey's avatar

First few times I read this as “Tolkienized”…

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