Volcano

@centerofavolcano

gold

chemical element; its chemical symbol is au (from latin aurum) and atomic number 79. what’s meant by durability in gold’s case is its chemical inertness. it doesn’t react easily with other elements. it doesn’t burn, it doesn’t rust, it doesn’t corrode. that’s one of the main reasons it’s considered valuable. it’s also expensive to extract. but at current prices, mining companies are incentivized to expand capacity and operate in previously unattractive, lower-yield sites. that means if demand doesn’t keep up, oversupply could emerge and prices could fall. in other words, gold may not be as safe a haven over the next few years as people assume. still, unless material science or ai somehow leads to the mass production of synthetic gold, it looks likely to keep rising in the long run.

silver

silver is generally used in the photography industry, electronic components, coin production, decorative items and jewelry, alloys, and dentistry. it is also used in cloud seeding for artificial rain (silver iodide), mirror coatings, batteries, and wire production. humanity will always have a physical need for silver. gold, on the other hand, does not have such widespread industrial use. in the digital market, people mostly trade gold that does not physically change hands. for this reason, not in the short term but in the long run, i think silver could become at least as valuable as gold.