My wife's cousin was deejaying old tango music for midsummer on a terrace (yeah - that is a thing here), and we dropped by for a drink and to say hello. It was the middle of the day and they were serving food, so it was fine for Smallsteps to be there with us and to have an apple juice. However, it is a bar that also has night events, so while we were sitting on the terrace in the sun, the inside looks like a nightclub and inevitably, Smallsteps needed to go to the bathroom, so I took her to the toilets.
It looks like a princess castle.
There was dark, there were lots of shiny stuff, and it had various colored lights and paints. It doesn't take much to impress a kid and let's be honest, it doesn't take much to impress most adults either. We are attracted to shiny things and when we see them, we believe they are more valuable than the matte version. I don't know what the evolutionary reason for that is, but it seems to hold pretty true.
We all like gold, don't we?
Well, perhaps that is not quite the statement that rings true. More likely, we all wish we had a stack of gold in our possession because of the value of it, even if we have no practical use for it. Of course, it isn't that gold as a material is completely valueless, but for most of us, it is.
What would happen if there was no gold on earth?
The short answer is - not much. Yes, there would be some changes necessary, but outside investment portfolios, there is not that much that is absolutely dependent on gold. Things might slow down a bit in comparison to today, but if it didn't exist in the first place, we wouldn't notice that either. That is the thing about conditions we never knew about, we don't know how they are affecting us.
A friend of mine who ribs me about crypto whenever he thinks it is down, simultaneously protects himself by buying gold. This is smart. However, as those in crypto know, not your keys, not your crypto, and this is similar with gold. He buys it and has been told that what he buys is physical and is kept in a vault in Germany.
Sounds legit.
Though of course, this is how most people "own" their gold, since gold itself is unwieldy to actually hold physically, and is very hard to use on a daily basis. So, instead of actually possessing it, people will pretend to buy it, telling themselves that if shit does hit the fan, that physical gold will be made available to them.
What are the chances?
While the volatility in crypto scares a lot of people away, what should be attractive is the opt-in nature of it. The freedom. It is a bit like working for oneself, rather than being an employee - there are benefits, but it also means being responsible for outcomes. And, most people aren't looking to actually take responsibility.
They want "financial independence" without having to actually be independent at all and rather, have someone else manage the assets, if they actually exist. But as said above, we don't know how we are affected by conditions we don't know about, and we really don't know that much about the mechanisms of investment, or what happens to them in the event of large scale events, like war.
Will that gold bank in Germany ship the gold to Finland?
Of course, under those conditions, no one really knows what is going to happen, and it would be a bloody mess in so many ways, but to pretend that there is security in centralization, is a fools game. But, when it is made to look shiny enough and has some colored lights.
A toilet looks like a princess castle.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]