People don’t understand gold. They nod like they do, quote the price, maybe reference inflation or the Fed. But when the lights go out, that’s when the truth surfaces.
Imagine this. You hear the warnings. A massive storm is on the way. One of those that downs trees, floods roads, rips through power lines. It’s happened before and it’ll happen again. So you do what any rational person would do. You look in the fridge. It’s full. Your freezer too. Plenty of meat, veggies, leftovers. But then the thought creeps in. What happens if the power goes out? Everything spoils. Every frozen steak, every carton of eggs. Useless.
So you get in your car and drive to the store. You know what lasts? Canned food. No electricity required. No refrigerator needed. Crack it open and eat. And so, the shelves start to empty fast.
That is gold. Gold is the canned food of the financial world.
Gold doesn’t need a battery. It doesn’t need a password. It doesn’t blink when the grid shuts down or the banking apps freeze. It just sits in your hand and holds its value like it has for thousands of years. Empires rise and fall, but the metal stays.
This isn’t theory. The largest players on the field know it. Central banks are buying gold like they’re bracing for the power to go out. More than 1,100 tonnes purchased in 2022, another 1,037 tonnes in 2023. These are not the moves of gamblers. These are the quiet preparations of institutions who’ve seen what happens when the lights go dark.
They are not buying it for returns. They are buying it for survival.
In times of stress, capital doesn’t seek yield, it seeks safety. It looks for the dry ground while the flood is coming. And while most people are still filling their portfolio freezers with frozen stock tips and digital currencies that vanish when the servers crash, the smart money is quietly stacking canned goods.
During a blackout, Bitcoin doesn’t work. Ethereum doesn’t either. Your password is useless when the internet is down. Try scanning a QR code when there’s no connection. Try unlocking your wallet when your phone won’t turn on.
But gold? You don’t need to ask permission to use it. You don’t need Wi-Fi or a PIN. You just hold it. Trade it. Trust it.
You prepare for a storm before it hits. Not after. Once the winds pick up and the lights flicker, it’s too late. That’s when everyone else finally understands what gold really is.