When asked to name three of his favourite things, Bollywood villain Ajit answers as follows: “Mona, sona, aur Mona ke saath sona.” In this, the delightfully lascivious Ajit has at least one in common with most Indians, Chinese, Egyptians or other ancient civilizations — gold. Our Lakshmi is frequently depicted with gold coins emanating from her palm, and over 6,000 years ago the Egyptians fashioned Tutankhamun’s death mask with pure gold to ease his transformation to divinity.
Gold also happens to be a stellar performer this year, ripping ahead of the S&P 500, the Sensex or Nvidia. There’s economic history too. For over a hundred years, the international monetary system operated on a strict and then a hybrid gold standard.
This ended in 1971, when Richard Nixon ended the dollar’s convertibility into gold and the world moved to the current system of fiat currencies. Regardless, gold continues to be a primary store of value, with most central banks holding a substantial portion of their reserves in gold. The US leads, with 78% of its reserves held in gold.
As of Jan 2025, the Reserve Bank of India held 879 tons, valued at over $50 billion. Enter bitcoin. Tech bros fascinated with math loved the elegance of a digital asset that is secure, finite and highly divisible, and unlike gold can be verified, transported and stored at minimal cost.
But tech bros being tech bros aren’t happy with art for art’s sake, and latched onto the fantastical idea that bitcoin could b.
