Steemit is home to everything cryptocurrency related. Cryptos and crypto talk dominate this platform. Obviously this site's set up on blockchain technology and pays users for posting and curating content in its own cryptocurrency, Steem
Naturally, as tech savvy people, we're a forward thinking group and noone here would deny digital currency and blockchain technology are the future. That they will play a very important role in our society in the not too distant future.
We're just at the tip of the iceberg for utilizing it's potential and it's very exciting.
With so much invested, time and money, talk of Bitcoin and the like are mainstream to the majority of users here. Steemians live sleep and breath cryptocurrency and that's fantastic.
There's a very small community on this site that also invest in gold, silver and other precious metals such as platinum and palladium. These are my people, I've been stacking and collecting precious metals for almost a decade, I'm a metal maniac.
At times it feels like these boys and girls get slighted and sort of mocked by some on here that say gold and silver are relics and anyone investing money in precious metals are Neanderthals. I've heard that metals are old money, more or less useless going forward and cryptos are the future of currency.
I've seen discussions going back and forth and it seems these two groups are sometimes at odds.
Some stackers say cryptos are a fad, that they've got no real tangible value or they won't last, or the bubble will burst and the amazing gains they've enjoyed will come crashing down one day.
It's almost like there's two different visions here but it's not quite that black and white.
Stackers aren't all just old fogies not hip to the new digital currencies or their importance and investment potential.
Sure some of the metal heads you may have dealt with on other forums may have been critics of cryptos. There is a skeptical group that buy precious metals that don't believe in any other form of currency.
They may have been shtf preppers that believe the world's going to come to an end one day and we'll all have to live in a world without power, and the need for bartering will rule again. Those are a very tiny segment of our group though.
While alot of those dudes are batshit crazy the core message isn't a bad one. Alot of their points are mainly stressing we just can't be so comfortable that we put all of our money into digital format. Like my last post on the situation in Puerto Rico, a series of storms knocked out the nation's power grid and they're actually bartering in silver and gold at the moment.
Gold and silver does serve a purpose and I for one believe that will never change.
Since the dawn of man silver and gold were revered and valued and I don't think that will ever change.
The more advanced we become the more we actually rely on gold and silver, it has so many purposes other than monetary.
Cryptomaniacs and Stackers aren't that different. Most of us don't trust big banks or our governments and we're both looking for a way to protect our hard earned money.
We've all seen banks collapse and many people lose their life savings by putting their trust in them. Many people want to avoid paying the high transaction fees and oversight.
We've also seen fiat currencies fail or hyperinflation take away it's purchasing power. The value of a paper dollar is now backed by nothing more than a promise.
Stackers and Cryptomaniacs both believe in each asset for its investment potential. They sink their hard earned money in both believing they can earn more on them then the palty interest rates that banks pay nowadays.
While there maybe a few stackers here that talk bad about cryptos they are very few and far between. Afterall were all here earning Steem and want it to succeed. There's no reason to have to draw a hardline between cryptos and metals and I'll tell you why.
We're interconnected whether you like it or not
Technology is dependent on gold and silver. Your PC, laptop, tablet, phone and T.V. all contain gold and silver. There's no better reflective material on the planet than silver and gold is the best conductive material mankind's ever known. Massive quantities of the metal are used up every second of the day to make the high tech items we enjoy.
Every year the demand for gold and silver increases but the price is so manipulated by the forces that control the majority of the worlds wealth that it's not reflected by the spot price.
Paper trading of gold and silver is a giant ponzi scheme. Every day billions of dollars worth of gold and silver are sold and none of the metal is truly accounted for or even trades hands. It's another effort to make money off of the unsuspecting public.
While a small percentage of the gold and silver that's used in electronics is recycled only a tiny fraction of it is recovered. Precious metals are a finite resource, gold reserves have been shrinking and finding large pockets of the metal in ground has shrunk to the point they're now mining in the oceans and ice caps trying to find them.
The point is, we are consuming more than we're finding and mining costs are almost on par with the spot price of gold and silver. With our appetite for using the metals, the rate we're retrieving them is unbalanced and the prices cannot stay this low for long. That's why stackers buy despite the poor performance as compared to other assets.
Silver is naturally antibacterial. It's used in water filtration systems and we all know the worlds freshwater is in decline due to pollution. Every year more and more silver is used for the purpose of making water safe to drink.
Solar power is dependent on silver. As stated earlier it is the most reflective element on earth. As the shift from coal and oil power and their pollution gives way to a cleaner way to source energy more and more silver is needed in this field.
The health care field also utilizes silver and gold heavily. Silver's antibiotic properties make it ideal in hundreds of medical instruments, treatments and the like and you could find it all through every hospital if you knew where to look.
There's so many uses for gold and silver I could make so many posts on them that'd I'd get flagged for spam. A quick Google search would reveal thousands you probably wouldn't have thought of!
Platinum and palladium are used in catalytic converting technology. Their elemental composition naturally cleanses emissions from powerplants and car exhaust. Even electronic engines such as cars use catalytic converters. There's two in the new Tesla's. New uses for these are found everyday.
Although scientists have been looking for cheaper materials to use they always come up short. There just is no replacing them, there's only so many elements on earth and they're called precious metals for a reason.
So whether or not you believe in gold and silver or other precious metals strictly as a currency that's just one of their uses. The reason they have value is like Bitcoin, there's a finite amount. More and more uses are discovered every day for the shiny metals and as an investment you only need to do a little research and you begin to discover their value.
So as a metal crazed lunatic I wholeheartedly believe in precious metals but I also believe in blockchain technology and the use and value of digital currency. There's no reason to take a hardline stance on either or mock or belittle crypto enthusiasts or stackers. The fact is we sort of need eachother. The blockchain itself needs gold and silver if you really boil it down.
One more thing, if we ever destroy this planet to the point we have to colonize Mars we're going to need gold and silver.
Space ships use silver and gold in their electronics and there's no better radiation deflecting material than gold. It also doesn't tarnish so it's perfect for space. NASA uses tons of the stuff.
Thanks for reading,
Pictures from pixabay
