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Comment by wyager | Hacker News Reader

If gold’s monetization demand disappeared overnight, 37% of its current demand is not sufficient to keep the price nearly as high as it is now.

> In a very real way it’s inherently worth more than copper or steel.

Can you explain what you mean by this? Usually when people say things like this they haven’t thought it through.

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Gold is valuable because of its chemical properties, it is almost completely inert/rust-proof and one of the best conducting materials. It's a very useful material for electronic conductors for that reason.

Do you think most gold investors are hoping to turn their bullion into conductors?

Incidentally, Bitcoin is also rust-proof.

Gold has intrinsic value because it has uses (like conductors and jewelry). Bitcoin has no intrinsic value.

But without rust it is unsafe

Gold is very inert, yes, but it still gets beaten by copper when it comes to conductivity [0] which is why conductors are rarely ever made out of gold instead of merely gold-plated.

Gold's industry use remains negligible in the great scheme of things and only a very small fraction of its value is derived from its industrial uses. It's valuable but not that valuable.

[0] https://www.bluesea.com/resources/108/Electrical_Conductivit...

Gold’s industrial use is low because of it’s high price not it’s utility. Drop it’s price by say 95% long term and it’s use by industry would dramatically increase, and mining would tank. Eventually after the already mined gold was used up it’s value would shoot back up.

Conversely, this means it’s value as a hedge is also going to stay. Some can take gold today burry it in a hole and know it’s going to still be valuable when they or their descendent pulls it out of the ground in 50 years. It’s not going to appreciate they way stocks do, but it’s also not going to 0 the way stocks occasionally do either.

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