Ronald Leung’s original, dated commentary is reproduced below. Views, invitations and product references reflect the time of publication; they are not investment advice, an offer, a guarantee of return or confirmation of current availability.
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All useful. None of it asks whether gold can settle a payment. Here is the difference. A dollar is a claim. You hold it because you trust the United States can deliver the goods and services behind it.
Gold is not a claim on anyone. There is nothing to default on.
That is the case for settling in it, and it has nothing to do with price.
Which puts the weight somewhere unglamorous. The bar has to be in the vault, and everyone has to mean the same thing by gold.
Today they do not. London Good Delivery large bars start at 995 fineness. Shanghai's benchmark kilobar contract is 999.9.
So the question is not what gold is worth. It is who has to be trusted, and whether we are all weighing the same metal.
Disclosure: Esperanza operates a tokenised gold business. — Let's open the statute. A new breakdown every week.