Gold as an example of trustless money

Gold is the ideal example of trustless money due to the fact that it performs all the functions of money, yet no central authority can manage its supply or ownership, and no middlemen are required for transactions.

The following characteristics demonstrate why gold holds value and can be used as money:

difficult to mine (gold can not be printed or electronically created like fiat currencies)
scarce (the amount of gold in circulation increases quite slowly)
non-replicable (impossible to duplicate)
unforgeable (there is no cheap way to synthesise a material with exactly the same properties and characteristics as gold)
durable (it is the most corrosion and oxidation resistant metal available)
divisible (can be broken into smaller amounts without losing value)
fungible (every piece of gold has the same chemical structure, properties and characteristics as any other piece of gold - apart from shape and weight)
dense (high value to weight ratio)
liquid [of assets] (can be easily converted to other means of payment)
distributed (ownership and transactions do not require a central authority or third-party intermediaries)
anonymous (privacy of the owner and confidentiality of transaction details)

However, gold has one major disadvantage in today’s digital age: Gold is tangible.

This one characteristic entails numerous drawbacks that renders gold very impractical as a means of payment:

It is difficult to safely store large quantities of gold, which is why most owners keep it in bank vaults. However, this in itself carries the risk of confiscation, as occurred in 1933 under Executive Order 6102.
Gold is difficult to identify for non-specialists. This means a seller cannot instantly verify the legitimacy of the gold received from a buyer.
Even though gold is divisible, it is not possible to swiftly and simply separate the correct quantity from one’s gold holdings for each transaction.
Typically, one only carries a limited quantity of gold in order to minimise the risk of loss and/or theft. This could lead to complications, for example, if the amount carried is insufficient for an unexpected expense.
To exchange goods and services for gold, the buyer and seller must be physically present in the same location. Consequently, long-distance transactions are not possible, unless you use a middleman making the transaction incredibly costly and time-consuming. A middleman would also remove anonymity and ‘trustlessness’ from the transaction.

Digital money does not suffer from these problems. Quite the contrary. Digital money is:

easy to store (one can hold any amount of funds in self-custody without the risk of confiscation)
easy to identify (the capacity for all users to verify the authenticity of a transaction)
easy to divide (the ability to pay exactly the right amount each time)
easy to transport (access to one’s entire funds from anywhere and at any time)
easy to transact remotely (the ability for cheap, fast and easy transactions over long distances)

Therefore, it is evident that the world will certainly never return to using shiny yellow rocks as their primary means of payment. Our digital world demands digital money.