<story><title>How the Winklevoss Twins Found Vindication in a Bitcoin Fortune</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/19/technology/bitcoin-winklevoss-twins.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;clickSource=story-heading&amp;module=second-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news&amp;_r=0</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>KaoruAoiShiho</author><text>What do you mean gold is rare on its own kind? Aren&amp;#x27;t there tons of other pretty metals? There doesn&amp;#x27;t seem to be any unique property of gold (other than sociological) that would help it defend against competitors like bitcoin or any other new asset.</text></item><item><author>felipeko</author><text>There&amp;#x27;s a difference about Gold&amp;#x27;s rarity and Bitcoin&amp;#x27;s.&lt;p&gt;Gold is rare on its kind and rare on its abundance. It may be hard to mine more gold, but it&amp;#x27;s way harder to find another gold-like commodity.&lt;p&gt;Bitcoin is only rare in the abundance sense. It is hard to mine more bitcoin, but it&amp;#x27;s pretty easy to find a (arguably better) substitute for what it does.&lt;p&gt;I can agree with it being better (having more utility) than gold, though. So I&amp;#x27;d agree that the sum of all e-coins will surpass gold, but I see no reason for Bitcoin to do it alone.</text></item><item><author>TheBiv</author><text>&amp;gt;&amp;gt; They said they might look at selling when the value of all the Bitcoin in circulation approaches the value of all gold in the world — some $7 trillion or $8 trillion compared with the $310 billion value of all Bitcoin on Tuesday — given that they think Bitcoin is set to replace gold as a rare commodity. But then Tyler Winklevoss questioned even that, pointing out the ways that he believes Bitcoin is better than gold.&lt;p&gt;I found this to be the most fascinating part of the article.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sverige</author><text>Gold is rare in several senses: In addition to being a rare element, it is the most ductile metal, the most malleable metal, and one of the best conductors of heat and electricity.  It is very stable and doesn&amp;#x27;t oxidize.  It is easy to alloy and easy to refine back to pure state.  It is one of three metals that naturally occurs in its elemental state.  It is the easiest metal to work for jewelry and other purposes.  It is also very dense.&lt;p&gt;All of these properties are what made gold valuable sociologically.  Silver is nearly as easy to work and refine, but it is far more abundant and it also tarnishes easily, so it is two orders of magnitude less valuable.&lt;p&gt;Platinum is also far more abundant, but much harder to refine, which is the sole reason for its high price.  It is also much harder to work, requiring much higher temperatures to melt.  It is a far harder and tougher metal than gold, which is why it is often used for the crowns in which precious stones are set, and as a plating material for gold.&lt;p&gt;Bitcoin is just vapor, good for nothing in a practical sense.  It doesn&amp;#x27;t even have attractive designs like paper money.  Fiat money is susceptible to going to zero value; gold will never go to zero, even in some total societal collapse scenario.</text></comment>
<story><title>How the Winklevoss Twins Found Vindication in a Bitcoin Fortune</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/19/technology/bitcoin-winklevoss-twins.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;clickSource=story-heading&amp;module=second-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news&amp;_r=0</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>KaoruAoiShiho</author><text>What do you mean gold is rare on its own kind? Aren&amp;#x27;t there tons of other pretty metals? There doesn&amp;#x27;t seem to be any unique property of gold (other than sociological) that would help it defend against competitors like bitcoin or any other new asset.</text></item><item><author>felipeko</author><text>There&amp;#x27;s a difference about Gold&amp;#x27;s rarity and Bitcoin&amp;#x27;s.&lt;p&gt;Gold is rare on its kind and rare on its abundance. It may be hard to mine more gold, but it&amp;#x27;s way harder to find another gold-like commodity.&lt;p&gt;Bitcoin is only rare in the abundance sense. It is hard to mine more bitcoin, but it&amp;#x27;s pretty easy to find a (arguably better) substitute for what it does.&lt;p&gt;I can agree with it being better (having more utility) than gold, though. So I&amp;#x27;d agree that the sum of all e-coins will surpass gold, but I see no reason for Bitcoin to do it alone.</text></item><item><author>TheBiv</author><text>&amp;gt;&amp;gt; They said they might look at selling when the value of all the Bitcoin in circulation approaches the value of all gold in the world — some $7 trillion or $8 trillion compared with the $310 billion value of all Bitcoin on Tuesday — given that they think Bitcoin is set to replace gold as a rare commodity. But then Tyler Winklevoss questioned even that, pointing out the ways that he believes Bitcoin is better than gold.&lt;p&gt;I found this to be the most fascinating part of the article.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>felipeko</author><text>You can&amp;#x27;t find another precious metal that will have the rarity of gold and it&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;non deterioration&amp;quot; property, both that made gold what it is (it&amp;#x27;s also a really useful commodity).&lt;p&gt;But i agree that&amp;#x27;s not enough to defend against competitors like Bitcoin, but the same cannot be said of Bitcoin. Other than sociological factors (that are arguably  much stronger on gold), there&amp;#x27;s nothing that would help it defend against others e-coins.</text></comment>