Gold could be the perfect money, its sorta rare, doesn't tarnish, is pretty, and completely worthless (for manufacturing)
(yes, gold is used to plate electronic connectors, but that is so little gold, it isn't even measured in thousandths.)
Since it is so worthless, it doesn't have any competing uses, unlike silver which has the most industrial uses after oil. (And after the new electrics are made known to the public, silver is going to be VERY valuable. Silver will be a national strategic metal. It will probably be more valuable than gold, and too precious to mint into coins, or keep in a vault)
And, that is the real problem with gold. Keeping it in a vault. If we are going to do that, then why don't we just leave it in the ground?
But, what is worse, is that we have a very poor track record of keeping gold, securely in vaults. Like the gold kept at Ft. Knox. Is it actually there? It has been loaned out, and so, owned by several people, but who owns it right now, and where is it?
This is true about all the big vaults around the world. It is supposed to be segregated, and accounted for, and audited, but what you usually find is a note saying we owe this pile 9 oz…
So, why would we even try to back stuff (crypto, the dollar, stable coins…) with gold?
People remember gold favorably.
Of course it is all a story, but most people remember gold, as in "the gold standard". The people remember that gold is precious. The people remember the story that gold was money for 5000 years.
But, this is really only the older generations. The younger generations don't know about gold, don't care about gold, and were told it is a barbarous relic.
From my view, gold as money, or gold backing didn't stop banksters from doing money shenanigans. There was still bank runs, which should have been impossible if the banks just kept their client's money safe.
That said, most people just remember the story, and a "gold backing" may make the public accept the new Dollar, or new stable coins.
Gold as money?
We could have gold as money, there are people spraying gold onto a plastic backer the size of a dollar. So, we know have folding, spending gold. We could also make gold "coins". A round of plastic, with a bit of gold encased in the middle. The gold could be a stamped/embossed piece of foil.
But really, if our world trading structure continues to exist, we really need electronically transferable money. So many people no longer use paper dollars. Many people no longer buy from a local store, where they could use cash.
So, unless something causes everyone to buy local, or everyone has a scare where digital money is suspect, i do not feel we will put much effort into having a way of making gold coins that are useful.
But, there is always the possibility of losing the internet and electricity.
Gold backing
Although it means little to me, a gold backing may be just the thing to get people to accept, and have faith, in the new "money".
Bitcoin isn't catching on fast enough, the end of fiat currencies is close at hand. And when the fiats crash, something is going to have to be come up with quick. And that will probably be some kind of "Federal Reserve Note" (although i really hope that Trump will dump the Fed, so this will be a Treasury Note) that is backed by gold, or gold/oil/copper.
There is also a high likelihood that a gold back crypto is released. And this may be the biggest scam ever, and/or linked to one of the large gold repositories around the world. Most crypto people are in the camp of "we already have digital scarcity, who do we need the gold to mess things up?", however there are so many people that are skeptical about crypto, "Crypto is backed by nothing, you can't hold it". So, maybe a gold backed crypto will be a really great move.
In the future, we will dump the gold backing. It is just an extra layer that has no use.
And further into the future, gold will have lost all its monetary meaning. And further into the future, gold will be extremely easy to mine, and almost completely worthless accept to make jewellery and non-stick cookware.
But, we aren't there yet. So, since most people are suspect of any "money" without being backed by something; and the people will be even more suspect of non-backed fiat after this coming fiat collapse and bank shenanigans comes sweeping across the world.
Me, personally, i would have preferred that bitcoin took over by now, however, that looks like it will be a while into the future, and it looks like the fiat is collapsing now. Which means cryptos are going to go WAY UP. And we will most likely see a gold backed Treasury Note.
Crypto is too complex for the marching morons, one slip up and they lose all their money.
Lost keys, bad addresses, fat fingered trades, etc,...
There are other ways to account for folks' consumption of consumer goods.
Here is one, and here is another, both are fictional and mere outlines of what we could develop for ourselves.
This one does the math using reality.
It was written over 100 years ago and nobody teaches it in skool, except that one guy.
I'm starting to buy into @valued-customer's theory that the way out is local production of all things, though I would much rather maintain the standard we have by grafting the existing infrastructure to the new paradigm.
Everybody keeps working 20 to 50, puts in 'the minimum standard'(tbd), and all things are 'free'.
We have to have workers, we don't have to have dollars.™
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Rather just get rid of the need for money and All live richly on Our planet!
Abolition of Money (article): https://peakd.com/informationwar/@amaterasusolar/abolition-of-money