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Comment by boltzmann_ | Hacker News Reader

Gold is good to store value until you can create it. I guess that a good point to Bitcoin value

It's still way easier to mine bitcoin than it is to produce gold in any valuable quantities. Producing gold was already possible from heavier metals (platinum works reasonably well) but the process isn't exactly easy or automatable.

There's only a limited quantity of gold on earth so its value is more practical than any digital cryptocurrency as far as stability goes. Not that the current world economy cares a lot about stability though, as many economies use inflation compared to other currencies to maintain growth and take a certain spot in worldwide trade.

I mean relaying in something (gold price stability/limited quantity) that technology could eventually change dramatically from one day to another seems a bad move. But I guess that happens to everything anyways :) .

The platinum process seems interesting, any link/name about that?

This might be what they were referring to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthesis_of_precious_metals#G...

"Gold can currently be manufactured in a nuclear reactor by the irradiation of either platinum or mercury"

Not much in the way of details, unfortunately. The sources might be a good place to look for more.

Technology could also crack the bitcoin network, which seems more likely than people finding out how to produce gold more cheaply. What’s the actual risks of a series of successful double spend attacks? IMO, several countries have the means and could easily become motivated, alternatively hackers could have significant financial incentives or just do it for the lulz.

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