One of the debates that we find in the blockchain and crypto sector especially, is that of the greater security of one asset than another, as for gold or precious metals fanatics, the same are more secure than something intangible and 100% digital, deeming them unsafe.
But is it really so?
Since cryptocurrencies, and one in particular, are often associated with gold, it is advisable to take this metal into consideration and verify, with historical data in hand, whether gold is actually and objectively safer and more convenient to own / have, compared to crypto.
Let's start with the ancient Romans and here we can mention, only in Europe, the various episodes that occurred during the Roman Empire, such as the various "sacks of Rome" perpetrated until 1527, leading to looting or tribute with coins of gold, which coincidentally will always be the engine to cause chaos or wars or more.
If we move to Asia, then we can see how Khubilai Khan himself, grandson of Genghis Khan, who not once but twice, in 1274 and 1281, tried to conquer and invade Japan just to search and steal gold, and relative defeats led Khan to devalue the central currency, aggravate inflation, and impose higher taxes on the population.
We are in 1500 and a certain Francisco Pizarro, unscrupulous, proposed a diabolical pact to the Indians (Inca Empire) as to grant freedom to the emperor Atahualpa, he asked as a ransom of a room (88 cubic meters) be filled with precious metals , and the Indians managed to deliver 5720 kilos of gold and 11 thousand kilos of silver, a pity that the poor emperor was sentenced to death at the stake.
Always a Spaniard, Hernán Cortés, towards the conquest of Mexico, met the Aztec people who were once again full of gold, and what happened? Well in a short time Cortés conquered the entire country and even became its governor; I doubt he would have stayed if he had found artifacts in stone or iron.
Let's go to 1600 and with Spain draining gold from America, England did not stand by and with Charles I Stuart, first decided to attack the Spanish ships loaded with gold and then imposed new taxes to finance its military operations. bankruptcy, and also recovering gold from the population.
We pass to 1800 with the Franco-Prussian war where Napoleon III gradually loses everything, and considerable penalties were also imposed and the Bank of France imposed forced loans for the payment of municipal expenses, also because having the gold deposited in the institute central, it was used as a real blackmail, leading to a real kidnapping.
Late 1800s and early 1900s in Russia, Lenin tightened the anti-clerical laws leading to seize all the assets of the church and obviously the gold they owned, and the reports speak of about 350 kilos of gold and 384 tons of silver stolen from the Church; in those years the First World War began and there was still the gold standard.
Welcome to the year 1933, it is April 5 (Satoshi Nakamoto's birthday) and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issues executive order 6102 which prohibits anyone from owning gold, setting a cap of $ 100 per person, lowering it further years later Richard Nixon for $ 35, and he also forced all people to hand over all gold coins, gold and gold certificates that exceeded that amount, or 5 ounces at the rate of $ 20.67.
A few years later and we have the "Moscow Gold" operation as almost 73% of the gold reserve was transferred from the Banco de España, in Spain, about 510 tons of gold to Russia, by Stalin, and a few months later civil war broke out Spanish and subsequently the rest of the gold, about 193 tons, were converted into currency in France and is remembered as "The gold of Paris", with considerable damage for Spain, and indeed just as the Spaniards stole that gold, in turn, a large part of the gold reserves were taken from him.
We also arrive at the Second World War and here in 1936 Wiston Churchill confiscated the gold because it was necessary for military expenses and not only and also to take it away from the enemy, since he was recovering gold massively in anticipation of using it for military expenses, also contributing to the great depression of those years.
Going forward a few years, here comes Bretton Woods in which it was established that the only currency convertible into gold was the dollar, fixing the price at 35 dollars an ounce and the International Monetary Fund was established in which each state had to pay a share in gold and a share in fiat so as to also decide the decision-making weight of the adhering country, with the possibility always of having this gold placed in the fund.
But that gold was taken hostage when on August 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon suspended the convertibility of the dollar into gold because the Vietnam War was being fought in those years which led to a sharp increase in public spending and American debt, while instead in 1975 President Gerald Ford signed a decree allowing people to hold gold again, and this year is also the birth year chosen by Satoshi Nakamoto.
All this history lesson has taught us that gold and precious metals are and will always be at the center of theft, confiscation and other forms that have shown that it is not at all safe to own or keep it, because with a simple law or decree it is You can confiscate it or indict those who hold it and then confiscate it anyway.
Thanks to the introduction of the blockchain and crypto, our capital and crypto cannot be confiscated by anyone and also have the advantage of being able to hide them easily and conveniently, since we can insert the private key in any place and divide it in many different places between them, preventing it from being found by anyone.
In this way, if a state needed funds, then in that case it could not confiscate people's crypto a priori because it does not have the power to do so, and consequently it would not even have the funds or sufficient funds to undertake war operations that would require huge capital, which it would not have.
Of course, today it is difficult to think of a third world war, but men have been carrying out filthy acts for 2000 years and more and I would not be surprised if in the future they will come looking for your gold, because they will not be able in any way to confiscate your cryptocurrencies and in more You can pass them on to your offspring and protect them from possible future unforeseen disasters.