Along with inflation and taxation, the destruction of physical wealth has historically been one of the greatest threats to the overall prosperity of humanity.
But, most of humanity still uses physical goods to store value. This baffles me. What to do if a war breaks out?
Even in ancient times, armies ruthlessly plundered cities and stole and destroyed the residents' belongings. I came across an interesting conversation on reddit about how war loot was divided among armies in ancient Rome.(
Reddit - The heart of the internet
).
The destruction of housing infrastructure during the Syrian Civil War, for example, offers a stark illustration of the problems associated with storing wealth in physical assets. Over 40% of the country's #realestate stock was reportedly damaged or destroyed, along with the value stored in it, resulting in billions of dollars in economic losses. By the end of 2019, the conflict had cost Syria $530.1 billion, or 9.7 times the country's GDP in 2010. The figure covers the loss of local production, estimated at $420.9 billion. As the civil war in Syria reaches the 10 year mark, the economic cost of the conflict has risen to close to $1.2 trillion.
This scenario highlights the risks associated with physical assets in conflict zones and highlights the advantage of Bitcoin as an immutable, indestructible and mobile store of value.