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How did the gold standard work?

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Re: How did the gold standard work?

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6k tons of gold is held in Manhattan by the Federal Reserve: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fed-has-6-200-tons-of-gold-...

My understanding is that most of that gold isn't the US's, but other countries' gold that the US is holding for them (because securing tons of gold isn't easy).

“ because securing tons of gold isn't easy”

Why not?

Re: How did the gold standard work?

#42
post #22
post #12

There are real practical problems with gold and changing economies. What happens when your population goes up - you need more gold. Or economic growth. Similarly if gold is discovered like Spain's Latin American winnings it causes inflation.

An increasing population wouldn’t need more gold, gold (and money backed by it) would just become more valuable, right? Or, in other words, prices would drop and there would be deflation, for better or for worse.

Which means people need to work harder for every hamburger or the like and a deflationary spiral could occur which is even more terrible than an inflationary one.

I think the parent was referring to ‘to keep the commodity/cash stable’

Re: How did the gold standard work?

#43
I don't get what's so confusing about gold. It's limited because it was created by the universe and it can be easily stored. If we had some gold-backed system, a real one, then where's the inflation ? Where's the problem for the average person ?

Re: How did the gold standard work?

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is just the key access problem. You can’t beat a time locked multisig out of a guy. There are systems to protect key materials against violence. It’s kinda an old art in the military. You can break into a multi-keyed vault of gold given enough time. You will not break multisig ECDSA with all the computers on earth.

If you have all the computers in the world, you can just create a dominate fork of the blockchain and own all the coins

That is not how it works. Even if you could usurp all the mining powers, the Coins are still owned by the keys. You only have the ability to censor future transactions. Mining controls the future, key holders control the past.

Re: How did the gold standard work?

#45
post #43

I don't get what's so confusing about gold. It's limited because it was created by the universe and it can be easily stored. If we had some gold-backed system, a real one, then where's the inflation ? Where's the problem for the average person ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debasement

Re: How did the gold standard work?

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is that most of that gold isn't the US's, but other countries' gold that the US is holding for them (because securing tons of gold isn't easy).

“ because securing tons of gold isn't easy” Why not?

People are surprisingly motivated to try to steal generalized stores of value that are untraceable? Especially when it’s worth a lot in even small quantities.

So everyone from guards to govts would love to get their hands on it.

6000 tons of gold is worth around 384 billion dollars.

Re: How did the gold standard work?

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don’t tell me how to talk. Please don’t go round the internet telling people how to talk, it is unbecoming. A real Bitcoiner would never try to impose their rules around speech on others. It seems that having a controversial opinion is fuel for a good conversation.

You stated a claim without any trace of a supporting argument, let alone any evidence. You can choose to not believe this if you wish. However this is far beyond your wishes. ;-)

Fair enough, I just really can’t stand when other random internet users say shit like “please don’t say that”. No, be gone censor! We are peers here, you have no power to control what is said.

There is one man who I will listen to if he tells me to shut up, that man is the moderator dan g.

Re: How did the gold standard work?

#48
post #37
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why are they not updating the value?

I found this - https://www.bullionstar.com/blogs/jp-koning/golds-official-p... . The whole article is worth a read, this is the important bit - “And that is probably why the U.S.’s statutory price of gold stays fixed at a decades-old level of $42.22. The consensus that independent central banking is a good thing (because it keeps a lid on inflation) dictates that the Fed have plenty of ammo. If the official gold pric…

And it’s reasons like this that the Fed is so distrusted.

The should just openly admit to the general public that dollars are backed by an excel sheet that can be changed at anytime.

Re: How did the gold standard work?

#49
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“ because securing tons of gold isn't easy” Why not?

People are surprisingly motivated to try to steal generalized stores of value that are untraceable? Especially when it’s worth a lot in even small quantities. So everyone from guards to govts would love to get their hands on it. 6000 tons of gold is worth around 384 billion dollars.

If you’re able to topple governments, sure.

Interesting question to consider how they might make gold more traceable. They must dope it with traceable elements, yes?

Re: How did the gold standard work?

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have all the computers in the world, you can just create a dominate fork of the blockchain and own all the coins

That is not how it works. Even if you could usurp all the mining powers, the Coins are still owned by the keys. You only have the ability to censor future transactions. Mining controls the future, key holders control the past.

You control future transactions with majority computing power i.e. double spend coins
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