Asian Gold Standard

Maybe gold is a way to bridge the gap to a new economy, but I really don't see it as a way to secure anything lasting. Value is always ultimately based on human knowledge, not material posessions. The problem is that the value of gold depends upon its scarecity. But you do not want money to be scarce, because that allows wealthy people to control most of the capital and then they effectively control economic activity, by limiting the availability of capital to the people who want to do stuff. Ultimately this restricts economic growth. It is material and human resources that are restricted, but their utility depends on human knowledge, so these resources can be effectively increased by improved human knowledge about how to more effectively use the finite supplies of them to serve the greater good. See this post on economic development, and this post on Problem Solving. See also this lecture on unexpected effects of new channels in complex systems.

Gold is a problem, because some people in Bolivia have huge hoards of the stuff.