To answer the question can gold become worthless; it is important to understand the nature of wealth and value. The essence of wealth is desired work. If a person’s only wealth was currency, but no one was willing to trade any services (it takes desired work to perform services) or trade any goods, (it takes desired work to produce or cultivate goods) for that currency, as long as that person isn’t willing to do any desired work; or as long as anyone isn’t willing to do any desired work for that person, that person has no wealth. On the other hand if a person had no currency, but people were willing to perform services or give goods to that person, as long as people are willing to do those things; or if that person did do desired work and traded it, that person has wealth.

The nature of value is subjective and not objective. Just like beauty value is in the eye of the beholder. One person can look at a product and see it as too expensive. In that case that person values the money it takes to buy the product more than the product itself. On the other hand if another person looks at the same product and sees it as a good deal; that person values the product more than the money it takes to buy it. Since people’s views and perceptions can change at any given time, their value of something can also change at any given time.

Gold’s value like any other product is in the eye of the beholder. There are a number of reasons why gold was and is valued by many cultures and individuals. Some of these reasons are gold’s durability (gold does not rust or tarnish), gold’s beauty (gold has a distinctive color), gold’s rarity (gold is rare enough to be used as money but not too rare to make it impractical), gold’s weight (gold is dense and hard to counterfeit), gold’s uniformity (pure gold is the same no matter where or when it was mined), gold’s fluidity (gold cam be made to be any shape and can be divided or combined), gold’s ability to hold wealth (gold has held wealth for over six thousand years).

These qualities and many more are some of the reasons why people value gold. To answer the question can gold become worthless; anything can become worthless if no person is willing to do or trade desired work for it. Gold with its six thousand year track record and the fact that no civilization that accepted it ever turned around and then rejected it; shows that gold becoming worthless is highly unlikely.