I honestly believe that we are so dependent on technology that if the internet goes down, gold won't even be worth anything. If the internet goes down, that means no electricity and no utilities of any kind anywhere. At that point I wouldn't trade a gun, bag full of food, and medicine for even a handful gold coins. Gold coins aren't going to feed or protect and sustain a person for very long.
If it was 30 years ago before tech became integral in our lives, yes, I would say gold was the way to go. Not right now. I know lots of teenagers that would much rather have a $700 smartphone than a $700 gold chain. In fact if it was an either or scenario, I don't even know one young person that would take the gold chain over a smartphone. Gold just isn't valuable to young people anymore.
I think Bitcoin is the clear winner.
Who cares about young ppl? If someone would take a $700 smartphone (what will worth only $500 after three month and fity bucks on ebay after a year) over a $700 piece of gold will deserve the worst fate
.
Gold will always worth something. You can always sell it to the nearest jewelry if needed and even in a SHTF scenario you can go to the local farmers and you will have a chance to exchange your wedding ring to a bag of potatoes
. Until people think that after the crisis everything gonna be alright again they will accept gold. Not quite so sure about smartphones and paper wallets.
The assumption I think a lot of people have is that if we lose internet, that society will just roll back to pre-internet days, like to the 1950's or something. I am guessing that is a fallacy.
If we lose electricty, internet, communication, water and gas (they are all connected), we don't back in time to the 1950's. We go back in time to the dark ages. There won't be farmers markets either to trade gold for. Again, if the farmer has veggies and a house, but no gasoline, how does he get those veggies to the market, and even if he has gold, then what will he use the gold for?
All the other shops are closed. If society loses electricity, internet, and utilities permanently then it is going to suck bad. Only the self-sufficient types will make it. Even the preppers might not fair well. If society looses these things temporarily, people will still just use cash. Seriously, nobody is going to be walking around with gold coins, they would just use dollars. Without the internet and smart phones, people wouldn't even know what a gold coin is worth anyway, everybody would be wildly guessing.
These types of scenarios are an all or nothing type of deal. When society devolves and rolls back, it doesn't just get to roll back a few years, it rolls back all the way and starts over from scratch again. It goes back to families growing their own food and defending it and themselves with guns. Yes, it can build much faster because the path to build up again and way is known, but it has to start from the beginning again. In such a scenerio, you keep your gold coins, and the farmer will keep his bag of potatoes, and after you starve in the winter and die, he will go to your house and pick them up. Then he will have potatoes and gold, but again, where will he spend you gold coins? I am not even sure if he will bother to pick them up.
