In our Expert Takes, opinion leaders from inside and outside the crypto industry express their views, share their experience and give professional advice. Expert Takes cover everything from Blockchain technology and ICO funding to taxation, regulation and cryptocurrency adoption by different sectors of the economy.
If you would like to contribute an Expert Take, please email your ideas and CV to
Since 1971 and the end of the gold standard, fiat currencies have ruled the world. Economies learned how to use and abuse the fiat currency system and central banks have not shied away from using the printing press extensively. Before 1971 central banks had to own large reserves of gold - or the closest proxy, i.e. the US Dollar - as currencies were pegged to a certain quantity of gold. One of the arguments to abolish the gold standard was that economic growth was constrained by the inability of central banks to increase the money supply and create credit. So the gold standard was abolished.
Yet, even to this day large quantities of gold remain owned by central banks around the world. Central banks around the world collectively own 33,000 tonnes[2] of gold, or the equivalent of 1.6 trillion US dollars. Ironically, while these central banks own gold as a store of value to defend their currency should their currencies be under attack, most of these central banks do not have access to their own gold. Indeed, most of the gold owned by central banks is usually stored in the US or in the UK, mostly for historical reasons and because it is rather complicated to move it. Interestingly, in the past 5 years central banks have started repatriating[3] their gold to regain control over what is theirs.
