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If we have energy cheap enough to make nuclear transmutation a practical source of gold then the economy is already unrecognizable.

Let us say that there was a nuclear war, and everyone left is near starvation, lacks resources and security. What holds value? Gold? I'd say useful or desired commodities: Food, fuel, guns, working machines, liquor, tobacco. Perhaps gold will be settled on as the most fungible (and transportable) material for trade, but if I were preparing for such times, I would be betting on the commodity, not an inert bit of metal.

Of course those commodities are pretty terrible currencies in non-destabilized to a dark age times.

>This is why I find Bitcoin useful. It's nuclear chemistry proof.

But not people proof, as it's wild fluctuations will attest to.

Completely agree.