[ExI] De-Orbiting Gold

[Kelly Anderson]

On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 4:44 PM, Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se> wrote:
> On 20/05/2012 23:00, Kelly Anderson wrote:
>>
>> Who thinks my idea of orbiting money is ridiculous?
>
>
> Well, given the success of Rai stones even dropped into the lagoon as
> currency on Yap, orbiting money is probably not that bad.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rai_stones
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yap#Stone_money
>
> However, the real problem is of course that all the value lies in the
> perception of value. Bitcoin is very volatile because it is a small
> currency. A currency better be either large or backed by some stable
> institution to remain stable.

Physical gold is not a "currency" per se. If you have computerized or
paper documentation that you own gold, it doesn't really matter that
it isn't easily de-orbited at the moment. Now, if I tried to back a
currency with gold in the asteroid belt, that's a bit different...
because I don't know which piece of that gold is mine... but once it
is purified and in orbit with my name on it, that seems like a
completely different story.

-Kelly