Gold as a digital currency for reserves
bitcoin, a blockchain based digital currency, is often regarded as a global safe haven asset like gold. In this age of global turmoil, even gold has become unreliable and may be confiscated as India has. Some people have begun to think that bitcoin can replace gold, because bitcoin not only has the reserve capacity of gold, but also has some capabilities that gold does not have, such as low handling charges, rapid transfer capacity, decentralization and so on. With the increasing popularity of bitcoin and the decreasing volatility, the status of gold has been threatened
will bitcoin shake the status of gold?
gold has a long history, almost as long as the history of human civilization, and has withstood numerous tests in history. Bitcoin is less than a decade old, but its value has risen sharply. There is no support behind bitcoin. Of course, since the end of the gold standard, there has been no support from other currencies, except that there is no support from the central bank behind bitcoin. It's hard to predict whether bitcoin will exist in the next decade, a hundred years or even a thousand years.
From an economic point of view: money is anything that is generally accepted as a medium of exchange, means for payment of goods and services, as well as means for settlement of debts.
when choosing a currency, there are six elements:
-
generally accepted by the public (the most important)!)< What as like as two peas, Br />
has a limited supply of
separable
portable
rable
Homogeneous (forget what Chinese call it.. it seems to be the same, exactly the same meaning)
while in war, because of shortage of materials and funds, if governments print money in large quantities, it will cause inflation. As a result, money is less reliable than gold, but gold will not depreciate. Almost all parts of the world recognize the value of gold, so gold is regarded as a reserve currency.
moreover, based on the six factors, all countries in the world choose gold as a reserve currency at the same time
banknotes can be printed indefinitely, but no one agrees that their value will be devalued.
select 10 countries and regions with the highest GDP last year from all countries and regions to further explore the monetary status of gold in reserves. These 10 countries and regions can represent the most powerful countries in the world
the gold reserves of these countries or regions also account for a large proportion of the official reserves. In addition to the United States, Germany, France, Italy and other old powers in the last century all hold more than 60% of gold, and Spain also holds more than 1 / 3 of gold. For these countries, their own or local currencies are already world currencies, foreign exchange reserves are relatively minor, and gold is naturally the main component of official reserves
among these countries, China, Britain, Japan and Russia need to be concerned
in April 2009, China announced that its gold reserves had exceeded 1000 tons, becoming the fifth largest gold reserve country in the world. China's foreign exchange reserves ranked first in the world, reaching nearly US $2.3 trillion in the third quarter of 2009, of which US dollars are the main. As a good asset to hedge the risk of US dollar, gold can offset the loss of foreign exchange reserves caused by the depreciation of US dollar by increasing its proportion in reserves
from 2000 to 2005, the UK reced its gold reserves by nearly 280 tons. At present, its reserves have dropped to 310 tons, less than 15% of the total official reserves. At the same time, the pound's position is declining. As a once unique international currency, the pound's position in the foreign exchange market, international settlement and global foreign exchange reserves has changed. Today, the pound accounts for only 4.3% of global foreign exchange reserves. However, in the past five years, the UK has not continued to rece its gold holdings
Japan, like China, is a big country with foreign exchange reserves. From the data level, the proportion of gold reserves of the two countries is quite low, but the difference is that Japan's gold stock is far more than its gold reserves show. Japan has long been carrying out the plan of storing gold for the people. Financial institutions have launched a variety of gold procts suitable for indivial investors, such as gold deposit and withdrawal; At the same time, it also combines the savings with the pension plan to launch the gold savings plan. The gold deposit plan requires investors to deposit funds within a fixed period of time. At the same time, the bank automatically transfers money from each depositor's bank account to buy a fixed amount of gold on a fixed date of each month. When the price of gold is low, buy more, and when the price of gold is high, buy less. In this way, the price can be shared equally to rece the risk of direct purchase of gold. When the contract expires, the accumulated gold of the customer can be cashed, delivered in the form of BRICs or gold coins, or exchanged for gold jewelry. According to statistics, as of 2005, the gold deposit plan has stored 190 tons of gold for Japanese people< However, Russia is the third largest foreign exchange reserve country after China and Japan. By the third quarter of 2009, Russia's foreign exchange reserves had reached US $0.4 trillion. Judging from the history of Russia's official reserves, Russia keeps increasing its gold holdings, but the growth rate of gold reserves is lower than that of foreign exchange reserves. Over the past 10 years, Russia's gold reserves have increased by 40%, and there are plans to continue to increase its holdings of physical gold
we can see that these countries with the strongest global economic power are more or less holding a large amount of physical gold as an important reserve resource, which has increased in recent years.
gold is the most reliable way to maintain its value. It has its own value, so its purchasing power is relatively stable. Under the environment of inflation, the price of gold rises synchronously. On the other hand, in the case of deflation, gold prices will not fall, because historically, there has been a rush to buy gold in every political and financial turmoil<
gold reserves are completely within the power of national autonomy, and a country with gold can control it independently without external intervention
compared with paper money, gold has relative internal stability, while paper money is affected by the credit and solvency of issuing countries or financial institutions, so the creditor's rights are in a passive position, which is not as reliable as gold
as a reserve of various countries, the role of gold can not be ignored. Today, the total amount of gold exchange reserves in various countries is about 32000 tons<
the practical role of gold reserves
1
in any portfolio, it is not very wise to put eggs in one basket. Although the price of gold will fluctuate, the exchange rate of the currency in the reserve will fluctuate as well as the interest rate. Diversification of reserves usually has a more stable return on investment than single reserve. Therefore, our personal investment should not put eggs in one basket< As the economic security of a country, gold reserve plays an important role in the economy of a country, and plays an important positive role in stabilizing the state-owned economy and maintaining the stability of currency value. And gold is a unique asset, it is not directly affected by any country's monetary policy and finance. Therefore, gold will not depreciate when inflation occurs in the country. Therefore, there will be no risk, so saving some gold at home is not afraid of inflation< 3. Material guarantee
in the past, many countries implemented foreign exchange control, and even frozen all foreign exchange assets. These measures often have a significant impact on the reserves made up of foreign securities. When gold is reasonably held in reserves, the impact will be weakened. The function of reserves is to prepare for urgent needs. So complete liquidity is essential, there is no doubt that gold has this characteristic< 4. Gold plays the role of "war fund"
in a state of emergency, all countries may need to flow resources. Gold has liquidity, which is generally accepted by all countries. In addition, gold can be mortgaged
5. The development of gold reserves can be used as a sign of the strength of countries
at present, the world's total gold reserves are 37.650 tons, about 13 times of the world's annual gold proction. Among them, the countries and organizations with more than 1000 tons are: the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland and the International Monetary Fund. Among these countries, the United States has the largest reserves of 8136.9 tons. There are 32 countries and regions with more than 100 tons, and 47 countries and regions with less than 10 tons. China's gold reserves have reached 600 tons. From the above figures, the powerful countries also have large gold reserves. This shows that gold is still a symbol of the comprehensive strength of various countries. Therefore, gold reserves are still valued by all countries in the world, especially the developed countries. Therefore, as indivials, a country wants to reserve more gold. Why don't we keep more gold? If we don't save some, we can't have an emergency< 6. National deposit is for strategic reserve
gold is the main body of national strategic reserve, which can not be ignored. For example, the United States has 65.5% of its war reserve gold, the Netherlands 45.5%, France 41.9%, Italy 45.9%, Switzerland 39.9%, Pakistan 32.6%, Kazakhstan 22.2% and Zimbabwe 39.9%. Therefore, there is a saying in China that "with the sound of a big gun, there will be ten thousand taels of gold."
7. Because gold is not easy to be damaged, it is not as easy to depreciate as paper money
therefore, a government holding gold will increase public confidence. Some countries clearly recognize that gold has a strong support for their currencies. In addition, gold reserves are concive to improving solvency. The main function of the official gold reserves of various countries is to serve as a reserve for international payments. The amount of a country's gold reserves is closely related to its foreign debt solvency. If there is gold in a country's reserves, the rating agencies will also give the green light to it. Therefore, gold reserves are concive to improving the credibility of a country. This is true for a country and a unit. As we all know, there are always 100 taels of gold in the "Tongrentang" store, which enhances the credit. If you also have 100 taels of gold in your home, your credit rating must be very high
8. Holding gold can be regarded as an insurance premium
in case of some emergencies, the payment responsibility should be guaranteed at any time. In a word, the state has many advantages in holding gold, so every family should also like the state. If we want to maintain stability, we should also save some gold.