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Comment by nailer | Hacker News Reader

I’m not OP, but they could simply ask you to prove the USD is backed by anything beyond confidence since the removal of the gold standard.

Not saying everyone should jump into crypto, just be aware that most things without physical value are based on confidence. Which I’m sure you understand.

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The USD is backed by 11 nuclear aircraft carriers, 68+ nuclear submarines, 8725+ tanks, 1,359,685+ military service members, a police force and one IRS that makes damn sure taxes are paid in USD or "damn would be a shame if the governemnt took your home/car/freedom away"

That’s actually a really solid and novel argument and you might have changed my opinion here (give me some time to think about it). The USD is backed by the military not by gold.

The late David Graeber helped shape grounded ideas on money. His book entitled "Debt: The First 5000 Years" cover the topic, but he also discusses the core ideas in interviews freely available on YouTube.

Why does everyone get so hung up on the gold standard? What intrinsic value does gold have? 8% mined each year goes to technology and industrial use cases, that has value, and most importantly creates more value. The rest is people saying "Oh shiny", which has a less real connection than a paper note where obligations are traded and met.

Gold has several properties that make it useful as a store of value.

- Gold is a naturally occurring substance and, while not abundant, exists in many parts of the world.

- Gold is inert.

- Gold is not radioactive

- Gold is durable, but malleable.

Sure, but they could simply prove that the USD is backed by trillions of dollars of USD-denominated debt and tax bills which other people need to meet obligations. The confidence that implies is significantly different from the confidence implied in "number went up after going down last year"

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