• teft@startrek.website
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    1 year ago

    What value does gold have other than it doesn’t rust and it looks pretty?

    It’s the same thing essentially. Latinum looks pretty and can’t be replicated therefore it’s a good currency.

    • Bonehead@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      Gold is used in a variety of applications. You’re likely holding a device filled with gold right now. Even before the computer revolution, is was still used in medical applications. There are tons of uses for gold that don’t involve currency.

      • teft@startrek.website
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Yes it does have applications nowadays but when gold was used as a monetary store we didn’t have electronics. Gold was mainly used because it is shiny, easily workable, rare, and never corroded.

        • Bonehead@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          It was shiny, easily workable, and didn’t turn your skin green. As a jewelry metal, it was much more valuable than as a currency. It had uses other than just money…

      • Troy@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        The microgram of gold in my phone pales in comparison to the gold used in jewellery or hoarded.

    • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      You missed a big advantage of gold: for most of human history, gold was the densest material known to man by a wide margin, making it very easy to verify that a piece of purported gold is real.