I'm not confused about anything, the concept of value is very clear.

Any object used as money requires a certain combination of properties. Any one property is not enough, it needs to have all of them. Anything that doesn't, such as crypto or paper or seashells or cattle or salt, can have temporary trust-based value but not long-lasting intrinsic value as money.

These properties include:

1. Rare but not too rare. You need enough for everyone but not enough to pick it off the ground or digitally conjure it out of thin air. Gold fits the bill. Mining it is expensive and hard work and that limitation is physical, not artificial like in crypto.

2. Easy to work with, such as smelt or smith. Gold fits the bill. Palladium, platinum, rhodium and many other similar expensive metals don't.

3. Fungible, every piece needs to be the same and interchangeable. Gold fits the bill based on point 3. Diamonds for example don't.

4. Store of value. It needs to last and not be used up, worn out or tarnished. It needs to be dense in value for easy storage and transportation. Gold can sit in ocean water for 500 years and come out looking like the day it went in. Gold can be caught in a fire and be fully recovered. A handful of gold coins buy a new car even today. Gold fits the bill like nothing else.

5. Easy to recognize and verify. This is where the "prettiness" and long history of gold comes in. Gold is easy to recognize and fakes are quickly spotted using simple tests. A farmer in rural India knows what gold is and knows its value while the average layperson in the US can't explain what crypto is. Gold fits the bill.

Notice how conductivity or any other industrial application is irrelevant here. In fact, based on point 4, industrial uses are a drawback for use as money as they consume the supply. Money needs to sit still and hold value and there is nothing in the world that does it as well as gold does. Can't eat gold? Can't eat dollars either but you can buy food for gold when paper money turns worthless overnight, see the Serbian civil war. There's a reason government vaults are full of gold while they're telling everyone it's a useless relic and printing paper fiat like there's no tomorrow.

Oh, and I can touch my gold any time I like.

I'm not confused about anything, the concept of value is very clear.

Any object used as money requires a certain combination of properties. Any one property is not enough, it needs to have all of them. Anything that doesn't, such as crypto or paper or seashells or cattle or salt, can have temporary trust-based value but not long-lasting intrinsic value.

These properties include:

1. Rare but not too rare. You need enough for everyone but not enough to pick it off the ground or digitally conjure it out of thin air. Gold fits the bill. Mining it is expensive and hard work and that limitation is physical, not artificial like in crypto.

2. Easy to work with, such as smelt or smith. Gold fits the bill. Palladium, platinum, rhodium and many other similar expensive metals don't.

3. Fungible, every piece needs to be the same and interchangeable. Gold fits the bill based on point 3. Diamonds for example don't.

4. Store of value. It needs to last and not be used up, worn out or tarnished. It needs to be dense in value for easy storage and transportation. Gold can sit in ocean water for 500 years and come out looking like the day it went in. Gold can be caught in a fire and be fully recovered. A handful of gold coins buy a new car even today. Gold fits the bill like nothing else.

5. Easy to recognize and verify. This is where the "prettiness" and long history of gold comes in. Gold is easy to recognize and fakes are quickly spotted using simple tests. A farmer in rural India knows what gold is and knows its value while the average layperson in the US can't explain what crypto is. Gold fits the bill.

Notice how conductivity or any other industrial application is irrelevant here. In fact, based on point 4, industrial uses are a drawback for use as money as they consume the supply. Money needs to sit still and hold value and there is nothing in the world that does it as well as gold does. Can't eat gold? Can't eat dollars either but you can buy food for gold when paper money turns worthless overnight, see the Serbian civil war. There's a reason government vaults are full of gold while they're telling everyone it's a useless relic and printing paper fiat like there's no tomorrow.

Oh, and I can touch my gold any time I like.

I'm not confused about anything, the concept of value is very clear.

The problem is, you don't understand what money is. Any object used as money requires a certain combination of properties. Any one property is not enough, it needs to have all of them. Anything that doesn't, such as crypto or paper or seashells or cattle or salt, can have temporary trust-based value but not long-lasting intrinsic value.

These properties include:

1. Rare but not too rare. You need enough for everyone but not enough to pick it off the ground or digitally conjure it out of thin air. Gold fits the bill. Mining it is expensive and hard work and that limitation is physical, not artificial like in crypto.

2. Easy to work with, such as smelt or smith. Gold fits the bill. Palladium, platinum, rhodium and many other similar expensive metals don't.

3. Fungible, every piece needs to be the same and interchangeable. Gold fits the bill based on point 3. Diamonds for example don't.

4. Store of value. It needs to last and not be used up, worn out or tarnished. It needs to be dense in value for easy storage and transportation. Gold can sit in ocean water for 500 years and come out looking like the day it went in. Gold can be caught in a fire and be fully recovered. A handful of gold coins buy a new car even today. Gold fits the bill like nothing else.

5. Easy to recognize and verify. This is where the "prettiness" and long history of gold comes in. Gold is easy to recognize and fakes are quickly spotted using simple tests. A farmer in rural India knows what gold is and knows its value while the average layperson in the US can't explain what crypto is. Gold fits the bill.

Notice how conductivity or any other industrial application is irrelevant here. In fact, based on point 4, industrial uses are a drawback for use as money as they consume the supply. Money needs to sit still and hold value and there is nothing in the world that does it as well as gold does. Can't eat gold? Can't eat dollars either but you can buy food for gold when paper money turns worthless overnight, see the Serbian civil war. There's a reason government vaults are full of gold while they're telling everyone it's a useless relic and printing paper fiat like there's no tomorrow.

Oh, and I can touch my gold any time I like.

I'm not confused about anything, the concept of value is very clear.

The problem is, you don't understand what money is. Any object used as money requires a certain combination of properties. Any one property is not enough, it needs to have all of them. Anything that doesn't, such as crypto or paper or seashells or cattle or salt, can have temporary trust-based value but not long-lasting intrinsic value.

These properties include:

1. Rare but not too rare. You need enough for everyone but not enough to pick it off the ground or digitally conjure it out of thin air. Gold fits the bill. Mining it is expensive and hard work and that limitation is physical, not artificial like in crypto.

2. Easy to work with, such as smelt or smith. Gold fits the bill. Palladium, platinum, rhodium and many other similar expensive metals don't.

3. Fungible, every piece needs to be the same and interchangeable. Gold fits the bill based on point 3. Diamonds for example don't.

4. Store of value. It needs to last and not be used up, worn out or tarnished. It needs to be dense in value for easy storage and transportation. Gold can sit in ocean water for 500 years and come out looking like the day it went in. Gold can be caught in a fire and be fully recovered. A handful of gold coins buy a new car even today. Gold fits the bill like nothing else.

5. Easy to recognize and verify. This is where the "prettiness" and long history of gold comes in. Gold is easy to recognize and fakes are quickly spotted using simple tests. A farmer in rural India knows what gold is and knows its value while the average layperson in the US can't explain what crypto is. Gold fits the bill.

Notice how conductivity or any other industrial application is irrelevant here. In fact, based on point 4, industrial uses are a drawback for use as money as they consume the supply. Money needs to sit still and hold value and there is nothing in the world that does it as well as gold does. Can't eat gold? Can't eat dollars either but you can buy food for gold when paper money turns worthless overnight, see Serbian civil war. There's a reason government vaults are full of gold while they're telling everyone it's a useless relic and printing paper fiat like there's no tomorrow.

Oh, and I can touch my gold any time I like.

I'm not confused about anything, the concept of value is very clear.

The problem is, you don't understand what money is. Any object used as money requires a certain combination of properties. Any one property is not enough, it needs to have all of them. Anything that doesn't, such as crypto or paper or seashells or cattle or salt, can have temporary trust-based value but not long-lasting intrinsic value.

These properties include:

1. Rare but not too rare. You need enough for everyone but not enough to pick it off the ground or digitally conjure it out of thin air. Gold fits the bill. Mining it is expensive and hard work and that limitation is physical, not artificial like in crypto.

2. Easy to work with, such as smelt or smith. Gold fits the bill. Palladium, platinum, rhodium and many other similar expensive metals don't.

3. Fungible, every piece needs to be the same and interchangeable. Gold fits the bill based on point 3. Diamonds for example don't.

4. Store of value. It needs to last and not be used up, worn out or tarnished. It needs to be dense in value for easy storage and transportation. Gold can sit in ocean water for 500 years and come out looking like the day it went in. Gold can be caught in a fire and be fully recovered. A handful of gold coins buy a new car even today. Gold fits the bill like nothing else.

5. Easy to recognize and verify. This is where the "prettiness" and long history of gold comes in. Gold is easy to recognize and fakes are quickly spotted using simple tests. A farmer in rural India knows what gold is and knows its value. An average layperson in the US can't explain what crypto is. Gold fits the bill.

Notice how conductivity or any other industrial application is irrelevant here. In fact, based on point 4, industrial uses are a drawback for use as money as they consume the supply. Money needs to sit still and hold value and there is nothing in the world that does it as well as gold does. Can't eat gold? Can't eat dollars either but you can buy food for gold when paper money turns worthless overnight, see Serbian civil war. There's a reason government vaults are full of gold while they're telling everyone it's a useless relic and printing paper fiat like there's no tomorrow.

Oh, and I can touch my gold any time I like.

I'm not confused about anything, the concept of value is very clear.

The problem is, you don't understand what money is. Any object used as money requires a certain combination of properties. Any one property is not enough, it needs to have all of them. Anything that doesn't, such as crypto or paper or seashells or cattle or salt, can have temporary trust-based value but not long-lasting intrinsic value.

These properties include:

1. Rare but not too rare. You need enough for everyone but not enough to pick it off the ground or digitally conjure it out of thin air. Gold fits the bill. Mining it is expensive and hard work and that limitation is physical, not artificial like in crypto.

2. Easy to work with, such as smelt or smith. Gold fits the bill. Palladium, platinum, rhodium and many other similar expensive metals don't.

3. Fungible, every piece needs to be the same and interchangeable. Gold fits the bill based on point 3. Diamonds for example don't.

4. Store of value. It needs to last and not be used up, worn out or tarnished. It needs to be dense in value for easy storage and transportation. Gold can sit in ocean water for 500 years and come out looking like the day it fell in. Gold can be caught in a fire and be fully recovered. A handful of gold coins buy a new car even today. Gold fits the bill like nothing else.

5. Easy to recognize and verify. This is where the "prettiness" and long history of gold comes in. Gold is easy to recognize and fakes are quickly spotted using simple tests. A farmer in rural India knows what gold is and knows its value. An average layperson in the US can't explain what crypto is. Gold fits the bill.

Notice how conductivity or any other industrial application is irrelevant here. In fact, based on point 4, industrial uses are a drawback for use as money as they consume the supply. Money needs to sit still and hold value and there is nothing in the world that does it as well as gold does. Can't eat gold? Can't eat dollars either but you can buy food for gold when paper money turns worthless overnight, see Serbian civil war. There's a reason government vaults are full of gold while they're telling everyone it's a useless relic and printing paper fiat like there's no tomorrow.

Oh, and I can touch my gold any time I like.

I'm not confused about anything, the concept of value is very clear.

The problem is, you don't understand what money is. Any object used as money requires a certain combination of properties. Any one property is not enough, it needs to have all of them. Anything that doesn't, such as crypto or paper or seashells or cattle or salt, can have temporary trust-based value but not long-lasting intrinsic value.

These properties include:

1. Rare but not too rare. You need enough for everyone but not enough to pick it off the ground or digitally conjure it out of thin air. Gold fits the bill. Mining it is expensive and hard work and that limitation is physical, not artificial like in crypto.

2. Easy to work with, such as melt or smith. Gold fits the bill. Palladium, platinum, rhodium and many other similar expensive metals don't.

3. Fungible, every piece needs to be the same and interchangeable. Gold fits the bill based on point 3. Diamonds for example don't.

4. Store of value. It needs to last and not be used up, worn out or tarnished. It needs to be dense in value for easy storage and transportation. Gold can sit in ocean water for 500 years and come out looking like the day it fell in. Gold can be caught in a fire and be fully recovered. A handful of gold coins buy a new car even today. Gold fits the bill like nothing else.

5. Easy to recognize and verify. This is where the "prettiness" and long history of gold comes in. Gold is easy to recognize and fakes are quickly spotted using simple tests. A farmer in rural India knows what gold is and knows its value. An average layperson in the US can't explain what crypto is. Gold fits the bill.

Notice how conductivity or any other industrial application is irrelevant here. In fact, based on point 4, industrial uses are a drawback for use as money as they consume the supply. Money needs to sit still and hold value and there is nothing in the world that does it as well as gold does. Can't eat gold? Can't eat dollars either but you can buy food for gold when paper money turns worthless overnight, see Serbian civil war. There's a reason government vaults are full of gold while they're telling everyone it's a useless relic and printing paper fiat like there's no tomorrow.

Oh, and I can touch my gold any time I like.

I'm not confused about anything, the concept of value is very clear.

The problem is, you don't understand what money is. Any object used as money requires a certain combination of properties. Any one property is not enough, it needs to have all of them. Anything that doesn't, such as crypto or paper or seashells or cattle or salt, can have temporary trust-based value but not long-lasting intrinsic value.

These properties include:

1. Rare but not too rare. You need enough for everyone but not enough to pick it off the ground or digitally conjure it out of thin air. Gold fits the bill. Mining it is expensive and hard work and that limitation is physical, not artificial like in crypto.

2. Easy to work with, such as melt or smith. Gold fits the bill. Palladium, platinum, rhodium and many other similar expensive metals don't.

3. Fungible, every piece needs to be the same and interchangeable. Gold fits the bill based on point 3. Diamonds for example don't.

4. Store of value. It needs to last and not be used up, worn out or tarnished. It needs to be dense in value for easy storage and transportation. Gold can sit in ocean water for 500 years and come out looking like the day it fell in. Gold can be caught in a fire and be fully recovered. A handful of gold coins buy a new car even today. Gold fits the bill like nothing else.

5. Easy to recognize and verify. This is where the "prettiness" and long history of gold comes in. Gold is easy to recognize and fakes are quickly spotted using simple tests. A farmer in rural India knows what gold is and knows its value. An average layperson in the US can't explain what crypto is. Gold fits the bill.

Notice how conductivity or any other industrial application is irrelevant here. In fact, based on point 4, industrial uses are a drawback for use as money as they consume the supply. Money needs to sit still and hold value and there is nothing in the world that does it as well as gold does. Can't eat gold? Can't eat dollars either but you can buy food for gold when paper money turns worthless overnight, see Serbian civil war. There's a reason government vaults are full of gold while they're telling everyone it's a useless relic.

Oh, and I can touch my gold any time I like.

I'm not confused about anything, the concept of value is very clear.

The problem is, you don't understand what money is. Any object used as money requires a certain combination of properties. Any one property is not enough, it needs to have all of them. Anything that doesn't, such as crypto or paper or seashells or cattle or salt, can have temporary trust-based value but not long-lasting intrinsic value.

These properties include:

1. Rare but not too rare. You need enough for everyone but not enough to pick it off the ground or digitally conjure it out of thin air. Gold fits the bill. Mining it is expensive and hard work and that limitation is physical, not artificial like in crypto.

2. Easy to work with, such as melt or smith. Gold fits the bill. Palladium, platinum, rhodium and many other similar expensive metals don't.

3. Fungible, every piece needs to be the same and interchangeable. Gold fits the bill based on point 3. Diamonds for example don't.

4. Store of value. It needs to last and not be used up, worn out or tarnished. It needs to be dense in value for easy storage and transportation. Gold can sit in ocean water for 500 years and come out looking like the day it fell in. Gold can be caught in a fire and be fully recovered. A handful of gold coins buy a new car even today. Gold fits the bill like nothing else.

5. Easy to recognize and verify. This is where the "prettiness" and long history of gold comes in. Gold is easy to recognize and fakes are quickly spotted using simple tests. A farmer in rural India knows what gold is and knows its value. An average layperson in the US can't explain what crypto is. Gold fits the bill.

Notice how conductivity or use in jewelry or any other industrial application is irrelevant here. In fact, based on point 4, industrial uses are a drawback for use as money as they consume the supply. Money needs to sit still and hold value and there is nothing in the world that does it as well as gold does. Can't eat gold? Can't eat dollars either but you can buy food for gold when paper money turns worthless overnight, see Serbian civil war. There's a reason government vaults are full of gold while they're telling everyone it's a useless relic.

Oh, and I can touch my gold any time I like.

I'm not confused about anything, the concept of value is very clear.

The problem is, you don't understand what money is. Any object used as money requires a certain combination of properties. Any one property is not enough, it needs to have all of them. Anything that doesn't, such as crypto or fiat or seashells or cattle or salt, can have temporary trust-based value but not long-lasting intrinsic value.

These properties include:

1. Rare but not too rare. You need enough for everyone but not enough to pick it off the ground or digitally conjure it out of thin air. Gold fits the bill. Mining it is expensive and hard work and that limitation is physical, not artificial like in crypto.

2. Easy to work with, such as melt or smith. Gold fits the bill. Palladium, platinum, rhodium and many other similar expensive metals don't.

3. Fungible, every piece needs to be the same and interchangeable. Gold fits the bill based on point 3. Diamonds for example don't.

4. Store of value. It needs to last and not be used up, worn out or tarnished. It needs to be dense in value for easy storage and transportation. Gold can sit in ocean water for 500 years and come out looking like the day it fell in. Gold can be caught in a fire and be fully recovered. A handful of gold coins buy a new car even today. Gold fits the bill like nothing else.

5. Easy to recognize and verify. This is where the "prettiness" and long history of gold comes in. Gold is easy to recognize and fakes are quickly spotted using simple tests. A farmer in rural India knows what gold is and knows its value. An average layperson in the US can't explain what crypto is. Gold fits the bill.

Notice how conductivity or use in jewelry or any other industrial application is irrelevant here. In fact, based on point 4, industrial uses are a drawback for use as money as they consume the supply. Money needs to sit still and hold value and there is nothing in the world that does it as well as gold does. Can't eat gold? Can't eat dollars either but you can buy food for gold when paper money turns worthless overnight, see Serbian civil war. There's a reason government vaults are full of gold while they're telling everyone it's a useless relic.

Oh, and I can touch my gold any time I like.

I'm not confused about anything, the concept of value is very clear.

The problem is, you don't understand what money is. Any object used as money requires a certain combination of properties. Any one property is not enough, it needs to have all of them. Anything that doesn't, such as crypto or fiat or seashells or cattle or salt, can have temporary trust-based value but not long-lasting intrinsic value.

These properties include:

1. Rare but not too rare. You need enough for everyone but not enough to pick it off the ground or digitally conjure it out of thin air. Gold fits the bill. Mining it is expensive and hard work and that limitation is physical, not artificial like in crypto.

2. Easy to work with, such as melt or smith. Gold fits the bill. Palladium, platinum, rhodium and many other similar expensive metals don't.

3. Fungible, every piece needs to be the same and interchangeable. Gold fits the bill based on point 3. Diamonds for example don't.

4. Store of value. It needs to last and not be used up, worn out or tarnished. It needs to be dense in value for easy storage and transportation. Gold can sit in ocean water for 500 years and come out looking like the day it fell in. Gold can be caught in a fire and be fully recovered. A handful of gold coins buy a new car even today. Gold fits the bill like nothing else.

5. Easy to recognize and verify. This is where the "prettiness" and long history of gold comes in. Gold is easy to recognize and fakes are quickly spotted using simple tests. A farmer in rural India knows what gold is and knows its value. An average layperson in the US can't explain what crypto is. Gold fits the bill.

Notice how conductivity or use in jewelry or any other industrial application is irrelevant here. In fact, based on point 4, industrial uses are a drawback for use as money as they consume the supply. Money needs to sit still and hold value and there is nothing in the world that does it as well as gold does. Can't eat old? Can't eat dollars either but you can buy food for gold when paper money turns worthless overnight, see Serbian civil war. There's a reason government vaults are full of gold while they're telling everyone it's a useless relic.

Oh, and I can touch my gold any time I like.

I'm not confused about anything, the concept of value is very clear.

The problem is, you don't understand what money is. Any object used as money requires a certain combination of properties. Any one property is not enough, it needs to have all of them. Anything that doesn't, such as crypto or fiat or seashells or cattle or salt, can have temporary trust-based value but not long-lasting intrinsic value.

These properties include:

1. Rare but not too rare. You need enough for everyone but not enough to pick it off the ground or digitally conjure it out of thin air. Gold fits the bill. Mining it is expensive and hard work and that limitation is physical, not artificial like in crypto.

2. Easy to work with, such as melt or smith. Gold fits the bill. Palladium, platinum, rhodium and many other similar expensive metals don't.

3. Fungible, every piece needs to be the same and interchangeable. Gold fits the bill based on point 3. Diamonds for example don't.

4. Store of value. It needs to last and not be used up, worn out or tarnished. It needs to be dense in value for easy storage and transportation. Gold can sit in ocean water for 500 years and come out looking like the day it fell in. Gold can be caught in a fire and be fully recovered. A handful of gold coins buy a new car even today. Gold fits the bill like nothing else.

5. Easy to recognize and verify. This is where the "prettiness" and long history of gold comes in. Gold is easy to recognize and fakes are quickly spotted using simple tests. A farmer in rural India knows what gold is and knows its value. An average layperson in the US can't explain what crypto is. Gold fits the bill.

Notice how conductivity or use in jewelry or any other industrial application is irrelevant here. In fact, based on point 4, industrial uses are a drawback for use as money as they consume the supply. Money needs to sit still and hold value and there is nothing in the world that does it as well as gold does. Can't eat old? Can't eat dollars either but you can buy food for gold when paper money turns worthless overnight, see Serbian civil war. There's a reason government vaults are full of gold while they're telling everyone it's a useless relic.

Oh, and I can touch my gold any time I like.

I'm not confused about anything, the concept of value is very clear.

The problem is, you don't understand what money is. Any object used as money requires a certain combination of properties. Any one property is not enough, it needs to have all of them. Anything that doesn't, such as crypto or fiat or seashells or cattle or salt, can have temporary trust-based value but not long-lasting intrinsic value.

These properties include:

1. Rare but not too rare. You need enough for everyone but not enough to pick it off the ground or digitally conjure it out of thin air. Gold fits the bill. Mining it is expensive and hard work and that limitation is physical, not artificial like in crypto.

2. Easy to work with, such as melt or smith. Gold fits the bill. Palladium, platinum, rhodium and many other similar expensive metals don't.

3. Fungible, every piece needs to be the same and interchangeable. Gold fits the bill based on point 3. Diamonds for example don't.

4. Store of value. It needs to last and not be used up, worn out or tarnished. It needs to be dense in value for easy storage and transportation. Gold can sit in ocean water for 500 years and come out looking like the day it fell in. Gold can be caught in a fire and be fully recovered. A handful of gold coins buy a new car even today. Gold fits the bill.

5. Easy to recognize and verify. This is where the "prettiness" and long history of gold comes in. Gold is easy to recognize and fakes are quickly spotted using simple tests. A farmer in rural India knows what gold is and knows its value. An average layperson in the US can't explain what crypto is. Gold fits the bill like nothing else.

Notice how conductivity or use in jewelry or any other industrial application is irrelevant here. In fact, based on point 4, industrial uses are a drawback for use as money as they consume the supply. Money needs to sit still and hold value and there is nothing in the world that does it as well as gold does. There's a reason government vaults are full of gold while they're telling everyone it's a useless relic.

Oh, and I can touch my gold any time I like.

I'm not confused about anything, the concept of value is very clear.

The problem is, you don't understand what money is. Any object used as money requires a certain combination of properties. Any one property is not enough, it needs to have all of them. Anything that doesn't, such as crypto or fiat or seashells or cattle or salt, can have temporary trust-based value but not long-lasting intrinsic value.

These properties include:

1. Rare but not too rare. You need enough for everyone but not enough to pick it off the ground or digitally conjure it out of thin air. Gold fits the bill. Mining it is expensive and hard work and that limitation is physical, not artificial like in crypto.

2. Easy to work with, such as melt or smith. Gold fits the bill. Palladium, platinum, rhodium and many other similar expensive metals don't.

3. Fungible, every piece needs to be the same and interchangeable. Gold fits the bill based on point 3. Diamonds for example don't.

4. Store of value. It needs to last and not be used up, worn out or tarnished. It needs to be dense in value for easy storage and transportation. Gold can sit in ocean water for 500 years and come out looking like the day it fell in. Gold can be caught in a fire and be fully recovered. A handful of gold coins buy a new car even today. Gold fits the bill.

5. Easy to recognize and verify. This is where the "prettiness" and long history of gold comes in. Gold is easy to recognize and fakes are quickly spotted using simple tests. A farmer in rural India knows what gold is and knows its value. An average layperson in the US can't explain what crypto is. Gold fits the bill.

Notice how conductivity or use in jewelry or any other industrial application is irrelevant here. In fact, based on point 4, industrial uses are a drawback for use as money as they consume the supply. Money needs to sit still and hold value and there is nothing in the world that does it as well as gold does. There's a reason government vaults are full of gold while they're telling everyone it's a useless relic.

Oh, and I can touch my gold any time I like.

I'm not confused about anything, the concept of value is very clear.

The problem is, you don't understand what money is. Any object used as money requires a certain combination of properties. Any one property is not enough, it needs to have all of them. Anything that doesn't, such as crypto or fiat or seashells or cattle or salt, can have temporary trust-based value but not long-lasting intrinsic value.

These properties include:

1. Rare but not too rare. You need enough for everyone but not enough to pick it off the ground or digitally conjure it out of thin air. Gold fits the bill. Mining it is expensive and hard work and that limitation is physical, not artificial like in crypto.

2. Easy to work with, such as melt or smith. Gold fits the bill. Palladium, platinum, rhodium and many other similar expensive metals don't.

3. Fungible, every piece needs to be the same and interchangeable. Gold fits the bill based on point 3. Diamonds for example don't.

4. Store of value. It needs to last and not be used up, worn out or tarnished. It needs to be dense in value for easy storage and transportation. Gold can sit in ocean water for 500 years and come out looking like the day it fell in. Gold can be caught in a fire and be fully recovered. A handful of gold coins buy a new car even today. Gold fits the bill.

5. Easy to recognize and verify. This is where the "prettiness" and long history of gold comes in. Gold is easy to recognize and fakes are quickly spotted using simple tests. A farmer in rural India knows what gold is and knows its value. An average layperson in the US doesn't know what crypto is. Gold fits the bill.

Notice how conductivity or use in jewelry or any other industrial application is irrelevant here. In fact, based on point 4, industrial uses are a drawback for use as money as they consume the supply. Money needs to sit still and hold value and there is nothing in the world that does it as well as gold does. There's a reason government vaults are full of gold while they're telling everyone it's a useless relic.

Oh, and I can touch my gold any time I like.