I've seen this cyclic element twice before...
where people offer you gold or silver backed banking products...
i've noted it here, with a gold backed crypto I posted about...
I've also seen recent advertisements for "gold back credit cards"... which may be the same thing only rolling out the PR on the product...
All real money, all fiat, and all crypto... have the same problems...
1. There are costs in the physical aspects of handling and storage... banks have physical locations, vaults.
True in crypto also, as "infrastructure" that exists to support it... in the need for programming updates, etc. Ignored, but true, also, in that users have to maintain computers to be able to use it... and that ain't cheap.. but ubiquity enables economies of scale in shared costs that can be ignored when everyone has the required equipment..
2. There are costs in the routine handling... transaction costs... Crypto tries to create superior product features in this area... with limited success, thus far... but have done enough it is sufficient to compete.
3. And, there are costs imposed by the fact that people steal... requiring security, loss prevention, and costs absorbed by the market to cover the losses that still result... In legacy finance, credit card companies have mostly given up on preventing fraud... or enforcing law... and just absorb and socialize the losses... that being a very large portion of the costs in using their products.
And, there are benefits.... of one form of money over another...
But what doesn't change... is the reality of costs... being pitched against the value of benefits.
Gold and silver, if they are remonitized... will be able to compete with other digital money... for a while. But, eventually, the costs of storage and security will prove too onerous... and when gold and silver peak, and begin to decline in price again... those schemes are likely to fail... as have those before them.
Unless someone comes up with a way to minimze those costs... and the attendent risks... in a way that does a vastly better job of enabling trust than is possible under the current systems... all while sustaining and improving upon the benefits...
Crypto... in time... will find a way to optimize function...
Tokenization... in time... will prove its utility...
Solve the cost problem AND that of people finding ways to defeat trust... ? Then you'll have something.
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