The Periodic Table of Money

Nature hands us 118 elements. Which one should be money? Instead of arguing, let’s test. Apply the properties of money one at a time and watch the periodic table narrow itself — with no help from us — down to gold and silver.

This is the argument first popularised by Andreas Antonopoulos and the “Money is Broken” talk: money wasn’t chosen, it was discovered. Press the button to apply each property in turn.

Gold wins the store of value; silver wins the coin

Of the two survivors, gold is scarcer and effectively indestructible — the better long-term store of value. Silver is more abundant and cheaper — better for everyday, smaller payments. For millennia societies ran on both: gold for savings and settlement, silver for daily trade. Hold that thought — Bitcoin is engineered to have gold’s scarcity and silver’s divisibility at the same time.