Durability¶
Durability is one of the five essential properties of good money. It describes money's ability to withstand physical deterioration over time and through repeated use. Durable money maintains its integrity across years or centuries, enabling it to function as a reliable store of value.
The Durability Requirement¶
Money must survive the wear and tear of circulation and storage. If money degrades with handling or time, it loses value through physical deterioration rather than market forces. This creates uncertainty about future purchasing power and undermines confidence in the monetary system.
Durability matters across multiple time horizons. Money must endure:
- Daily transactions - surviving pocket wear, moisture, and handling
- Long-term storage - resisting decay, corrosion, and environmental damage
- Generational transfer - enabling intergenerational wealth preservation
Forms of money that fail durability tests disappear from use or require costly preservation efforts that reduce their economic utility.
Gold's Exceptional Durability¶
Gold represents the gold standard of durability - a phrase that itself testifies to the metal's supremacy. Gold neither corrodes, tarnishes, nor decays under normal conditions. A gold coin buried for 2,000 years emerges from the earth chemically identical to its original state.
This exceptional stability makes gold ideal for long-term wealth storage. Ancient gold artifacts retain full value today, and gold coins centuries old circulate at their metal content value. No other physical form of money approaches this level of permanence.
Failed Forms: Perishable Commodities¶
Many historical forms of money failed the durability test. Cattle, while meeting other criteria like recognizability and divisibility, die and deteriorate. Grain rots. Shells crack. Tobacco dries out. These forms served temporary monetary functions in isolated contexts but could not sustain complex, long-term monetary systems.
Even metals inferior to gold face durability challenges. Iron rusts, copper corrodes, silver tarnishes. While these metals can function as money, they require more careful storage and lose value through physical degradation.
Digital Durability¶
Bitcoin presents a novel form of durability. As pure information, Bitcoin cannot physically deteriorate. A Bitcoin private key is as valid today as it will be in a hundred years, assuming the protocol survives.
However, digital durability faces different risks than physical durability - data corruption, loss of access credentials, and protocol changes. While gold survives automatically, Bitcoin requires active maintenance of storage media and knowledge of access methods.
Paper Currency's Vulnerability¶
Modern fiat currency in paper form fails durability compared to metal coins. Paper bills tear, fade, and absorb moisture. Central banks must continuously remove damaged currency from circulation and print replacements, adding to system costs.
This physical vulnerability mirrors fiat currency's economic vulnerability to inflation - both physical and monetary degradation erode value over time.