Gold’s supply has always been uncertain. Sudden discoveries—like Spain conquering South America or the California Gold Rush—flooded markets and destabilised economies. Bitcoin’s 21 million hard cap solves this once and for all.

Gold-backed currencies tried to solve gold’s limitations by pairing its stability with paper’s convenience. Instead, they inherited gold’s flaws and created new ones: supply uncertainty, centralization, and the inevitable corruption.

How Bitcoin Will Undermine Trust in Gold-Backed Systems Fiat has entered its final phase, falling victim to its inherent flaws. Decades of money printing, unchecked government spending and the Cantillion effect (those closest to the money printer benefit at the behest of the rest of us) are finally taking its toll. As calls for a return to hard money grow louder, it is only the most astute Cantillion economists (and their government backers) who believe money supply should be managed by “a council of wise (wo)men”. Among those seeking hard money are the BRICS nations, who are looking into creating a gold-backed system to challenge the fiat dollar’s dominance. This would have been a great idea, were it not for Bitcoin. With the existence of Bitcoin any attempt to create gold-backed systems is doomed from the start.