i guess the question really is: what do you mean by "failing"? because in the past, gold used to back the USD (does that count as payments? one could argue it does). also, the price of gold has continued to rise over time...

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I mean it as a response to your question: 'has gold failed as a monetary good?' Gold worked up to a certain point of scale for payments, but it couldn't go beyond that. Sure, its price in fiat terms has risen over time - but if you held gold instead of Bitcoin, you missed out massively. Maybe you're looking at it from the perspective that gold was a success for centuries - I can appreciate that. But this also ties into the main point I'm making - if something comes along that's somewhat similar as store of value *and* is better for payments, that something will win.