Worldwide, the ANNUAL manufacture of high-tech products (PCs, cell phones, tablet computers and other electronic and electrical devices) uses some $21 billion worth of gold and silver (320 tons and 7,500 tons, respectively).
...that can NOT be recovered from the components unless you use hazardous metal extraction methods from the components such as liquefying them.
There's a reason why more end of life electronics end up in the landfill than in extraction laboratories. Because the cost to extract the gold from there is greater than the value of gold that is to be recovered. Besides it makes a lot of water pollution doing that anyway.
Quote
What you're proposing is in fact, ridiculous. $21 billion/year isn't negligible. That's just in electronics alone, not counting all it's many other real world uses where it cannot ever be recovered once it's used. Once it's been put into electronics if those electronics are thrown away, the precious metals that were used in said electronics can never be recovered.
And even you admit that they cannot be recovered. So why then, are people not using phones and PCs as a currency?
Because they have none of the properties of one, that's why.PS. cutive_Order_6102]Gold can be confiscated!
Bitcoins cannot be confiscated!
Because they can be moved to a wallet whose private keys are owned by someone in another country.
So your point about gold being untraceable is irrelevant. I can simply CoinJoin my bitcoins and all traces will be broken.
You, on the other hand, can't CoinJoin your gold or silver, can you? No, because you can bet your bullions that they have serial numbers engraved on them.
People generally sell broken phones and computers and other electronics for parts, ebay is a prime example. In many cases people save the broken PCB's to extract the precious metals...
Gold has never been actually physically taken from citizens here in the USA, and even if they tried, people can come up with alot more creative ways of hiding them that make it not worth it for the governemtn to even try...
Bitcoin can in fact be seized, if hackers can steal it, then the government can steal it... with alot more ease than physically trying to find someones precious metals....
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/04/22/seized-silk-road-bitcoin-to-clear-ross-ulbrichts-183-million-debt/
Bitcoin is on a public ledger, s ever if you coinjoin or mixed, chainalysis can work with law enforcement and seize them...
As a matter of fact, you're a genius... if only humans invented this thing called a smelter to melt precious metals down so there wouldn't be any serial numbers.... Cmon bro, what are you like 12?