Is it illegal to buy gold in Western countries?

[Scarabus]

Bitcoins are analogous to gold; both gold and bitcoins are limited in total amount, making them an effective way to store money without paying the "inflation tax". However, there are currently many problems with cryptocurrencies, such as the division into "pure" and "dirty" crypto, and I am not sure that cryptocurrencies are more convenient to use than gold. And this leads to a new question: why the gold is not growing as fast as bitcoins? Maybe buying gold is illegal in the US/Europe?

[IIrik11]

I am not sure that cryptocurrencies are more convenient to use than gold

it is definitely easy to use cryptocurrency because u can spend it online to purchase goods and services

whereas you'd have to physically carry gold to sell/exchange

why the gold is not growing as fast as bitcoins?

i think it is growing pretty fast, gold prices soared 30% this year alone

outperforming silver and most stocks/etfs

Maybe buying gold is illegal in the US/Europe?

buying gold is legal in us/europe but it is much regulated than crypto

[Scarabus]

buying gold is legal in us/europe but it is much regulated than crypto

How it is regulated, what are this laws, how difficult is to accept them for a common citizen?

[IIrik11]

buying gold is legal in us/europe but it is much regulated than crypto

How it is regulated, what are this laws, how difficult is to accept them for a common citizen?

not difficult at all and it is actually easy to buy/sell and own gold

regulated in the sense that you have to report your transactions

because there is a capital gains tax on gold just like stocks

[Scarabus]

because there is a capital gains tax on gold just like stocks

So maybe it is really difficult for a usual person to buy gold, because he must have to write his own tax declaration for paying these taxes?

[paxmao]

buying gold is legal in us/europe but it is much regulated than crypto

How it is regulated, what are this laws, how difficult is to accept them for a common citizen?

Super easy and at the click of a button. Now, you have several alternatives: physical gold or a gold EFT of fund. The first one is obviously physical and you can store it, bury it, hide it in your cavities if you have to run, ... although diamonds tend to be better for that.

The problem is that you will be charged a large fee on top. Usually, it is also registered and the estate knows you got it.

If you are simply investing for speculation or storing value, perhaps an ETF is your thing. It is quick and simple with any trading account.

Now, you must be aware that it is ofte illegal to cross a border with your gold.

[mocacinno]

Just to give one more answer: i'm living in the western EU (think France, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany) and in my country it's super easy to buy and sell gold... It's not only legal, it's about the only thing that's untaxed (as for now). If you buy silver, you have to pay tax (unless it's valid silver coins), but for gold it's still tax free . There might be some small print about which gold or how much, but for the general buyer, i think you won't run into any troubles.

You can buy gold online and have it shipped to you, you can buy it virtually and have the seller store your gold or you can buy it in a physical shop... When you want to sell, you usually have to go trough KYC tough, but as far as i know, that's about it.

[Scarabus]

Just to give one more answer: i'm living in the western EU (think France, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany) and in my country it's super easy to buy and sell gold... It's not only legal, it's about the only thing that's untaxed (as for now). If you buy silver, you have to pay tax (unless it's valid silver coins), but for gold it's still tax free . There might be some small print about which gold or how much, but for the general buyer, i think you won't run into any troubles.

You can buy gold online and have it shipped to you, you can buy it virtually and have the seller store your gold or you can buy it in a physical shop... When you want to sell, you usually have to go trough KYC tough, but as far as i know, that's about it.

If so, it is really strange for me, why the people in France do not buy large amounts of gold for storing their money. Maybe it is difficult to buy a micro bar of gold? Or it is difficutl to sell it because you have to prove that your gold is pure?
As I have explained, I don't see that the bitcoins are really more easy for use than the gold.

[BitGoba]

Bitcoins are analogous to gold; both gold and bitcoins are limited in total amount, making them an effective way to store money without paying the "inflation tax". However, there are currently many problems with cryptocurrencies, such as the division into "pure" and "dirty" crypto, and I am not sure that cryptocurrencies are more convenient to use than gold. And this leads to a new question: why the gold is not growing as fast as bitcoins? Maybe buying gold is illegal in the US/Europe?

Gold is completely impractical as money. That’s why gold coins were replaced by paper money, and banks were created.Bitcoin is a far superior form of money, as can be seen in the table below comparing their monetary properties.




Bitcoin is the first form of money with truly superior characteristics such a form of money has never existed before.

Gold has an estimated inflation rate of about 1 to 2% annually. It is estimated that around 200,000 tons of gold have been mined so far, and every year approximately 1 to 2% more gold is extracted from the earth. This means the supply of gold continues to increase slowly over time.Therefore, the annual amount of gold mined is between 2,000 and 4,000 tons. At this rate, the total amount of gold in existence would approximately double in 50 to 100 years.This doubling could happen much sooner if a large new gold deposit is discovered or if new technology makes gold extraction more efficient. Gold is not like Bitcoin, its supply is elastic. When the price of gold rises, many previously unprofitable mines become profitable, increasing the supply.In contrast, Bitcoin has a fixed supply capped at 21 million coins Also, new Bitcoin issuance cannot be accelerated or changed because there is a precise, predetermined schedule for releasing new bitcoins. This strict issuance order is enforced by the protocol and cannot be altered, ensuring predictable supply over time.Bitcoin’s inflation rate decreases every 4 years through a process called halving. Currently, Bitcoin’s inflation is about 0.8%, which is much lower than gold’s inflation rate. In 2028, the inflation rate will halve again to approximately 0.4%, further reducing new supply and increasing scarcity.
Gold is expected to be demonetized over the next 50 years. So, if someone owns gold, they should seriously consider  My opinion is that it’s better to  gold exchange it for Bitcoin.

[passwordnow]

If so, it is really strange for me, why the people in France do not buy large amounts of gold for storing their money. Maybe it is difficult to buy a micro bar of gold? Or it is difficutl to sell it because you have to prove that your gold is pure?

Could be the reasons but I think that the limits is what setting these people so they couldn't buy as much as they can. Whilst for Bitcoin, we're all free to buy as many as we can as long as we have the budget for that.

As I have explained, I don't see that the bitcoins are really more easy for use than the gold.

To us, it's easier to use Bitcoin if that's the case. You can't use gold to pay for something you've purchased online. Or if you're going to be with P2P markets, you'll need to be in the exact P2P market for gold for you to use it.

[BADecker]

Is it illegal to buy gold in Western countries?


It's not illegal, but in may be dangerous. There was a time that the US confiscated gold from its citizens. But they didn't confiscate silver. Go for silver, or turn whatever gold you own into private property. You can do this. If you own it, it is whatever you say it is... in the free world.

Government can't say it's private property, because they don't have any man or woman who will swear on a stack of Bibles that it is his private property. This means that even if it is private property, it isn't his private property, because he doesn't own it, and therefore can't authorize what it is.

BUT, to make it easier on yourself, get silver. But do the same if government tries to confiscate silver. Designate it as private property, because government doesn't really own private property, if you push it hard enough in court. So, it's private property and not gold or silver.

[mocacinno]

--snip--

If so, it is really strange for me, why the people in France do not buy large amounts of gold for storing their money. Maybe it is difficult to buy a micro bar of gold? Or it is difficutl to sell it because you have to prove that your gold is pure?
As I have explained, I don't see that the bitcoins are really more easy for use than the gold.

No, not really, you can buy investment gold bars starting from 1 gram if you want to. You can buy them online, and probably also in person. I would very much doubt it would be any problem to sell them.
Most people don't like risk tough, they don't like the fact they have a couple thousand euro's worth of a physical item laying in their house (or in their safe deposit box). Burglary is something real. Most western European country's feel that the life of a burglar is worth more than the items he's stealing, so most western European country's would punish the victim if he chooses to defend his/her property using any force.

Apart from myself, i don't think anybody in my extended family owns gold, bitcoin, ETF's, shares,... They just keep their money in a bank account and get a very low interest (lower than the inflation). It's not because they cannot buy these things, it's because they're afraid of losing their money (either by a market crash, gold price fluctuation, bitcoin bear market, or getting robbed). They are so uninterested in any of these things they don't even know how they work, or where they are traded.

At least, that's how i perceive this.

[Iranus]

Gold is completely impractical as money. That’s why gold coins were replaced by paper money, and banks were created.Bitcoin is a far superior form of money, as can be seen in the table below comparing their monetary properties.

The reason gold is no longer used as currency and has been replaced by fiat money is because the supply of gold is limited and that is no longer suitable for the modern economy. As the world's population and economy grow rapidly, using a currency with a finite supply like gold or bitcoin will hinder the economy, causing stagnation and preventing growth.

Additionally, under the gold standard, central banks lacked the flexibility to adjust monetary policy to help the economy cope with economic crises or shocks caused by wars, natural disasters, or pandemics.

Similarly, while bitcoin has many advantages over gold, with its small supply and limited scalability, adopting it as a currency will only shrink the global economy and hinder its growth. Neither bitcoin nor gold are suitable as currencies in the modern economy.

[DeathAngel]

Gold has been around for as long as records exist. The reason it has had lesser returns than Bitcoin over the last 10 years are obvious. Bitcoin has a max supply cap, Gold doesn’t. The marketcap of Gold is huge, it takes more money to move the price significantly. Gold is difficult to physically move in large quantities, the digital age is here, Bitcoin will swallow up a lot of Gold’s liquidity in the future.

[o48o]

Bitcoins are analogous to gold; both gold and bitcoins are limited in total amount, making them an effective way to store money without paying the "inflation tax". However, there are currently many problems with cryptocurrencies, such as the division into "pure" and "dirty" crypto, and I am not sure that cryptocurrencies are more convenient to use than gold. And this leads to a new question: why the gold is not growing as fast as bitcoins? Maybe buying gold is illegal in the US/Europe?

By "growing as fast as bitcoin" you mean the price of it? Because gold has around 10x market cap of btc, making gold more expensive already. And there's only so much room to grow.

Also there's dirty gold as well, like dirty bitcoin and dirty money. FATF regulations might want you to prove the origins and trail how you got any asset you own.

Usually when you buy gold in commodity trading exchanges, it's not physical gold. You are actually buying synthetics representing the value of gold. Sometimes they are backed by actual gold.

Also it's not illegal to buy gold, but it's illegal to buy and sell stolen gold for example, just like stolen anything.

[OgNasty]

Bitcoin is a lot more useful to use than gold. Maybe not for making a wedding ring, but for storing value, sending payments, or having self custody, Bitcoin is far ahead of gold. Then when you talk about scarcity and meteors, the gold argument sort of goes out the window.

Answering your question though, no, buying gold is not illegal.

[philipma1957]

Bitcoins are analogous to gold; both gold and bitcoins are limited in total amount, making them an effective way to store money without paying the "inflation tax". However, there are currently many problems with cryptocurrencies, such as the division into "pure" and "dirty" crypto, and I am not sure that cryptocurrencies are more convenient to use than gold. And this leads to a new question: why the gold is not growing as fast as bitcoins? Maybe buying gold is illegal in the US/Europe?

Buying gold in the USA is very easy.

Join Costco and buy it safely pretty much at cost.


https://www.costco.com/1-oz-gold-bar-pamp-suisse-lady-fortuna-veriscan-new-in-assay.product.4000363990.html


you can use a credit card if you want.

[Hispo]

Bitcoins are analogous to gold; both gold and bitcoins are limited in total amount, making them an effective way to store money without paying the "inflation tax". However, there are currently many problems with cryptocurrencies, such as the division into "pure" and "dirty" crypto, and I am not sure that cryptocurrencies are more convenient to use than gold. And this leads to a new question: why the gold is not growing as fast as bitcoins? Maybe buying gold is illegal in the US/Europe?

It is not illegal to buy, sell or own gold in the majority of the countries here in the west, but it can be dangerous depending on the country you live in. Here in my nation and specially in my country, gold is a very big deal, as we are relatively close to mines and mining settlements, so it is not common to see people using gold to buy food, water, paying for services and all kinds of products, that happens in the mining towns, where gold powder has more value in transactions than fiat.

Also, I think you are under-estimating Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies when comes to fungibility, liquidity and ease of use, not even mentioning Bitcoin can be owned in a discreet manner, without catching the attention of potential thieves.

[Scarabus]

I have read the answers, and I must say that I still don't understand the subject.
It is not really important, that you can't use gold for paying via the internet or buying a dinner in a cafe. Bitcoin is not suited for this well to, and this feature not needed for using the main aspect of bitcoins - storing relatively big amout of money, for accumulating money for e.g. buying a house. If we buy bitcoins or gold for storing money, this means that we "lend" money to other people with relatevely honest conditions (more honest than lending the money to banks).
I have found that the price of gold has increased twice in last 5 years. So why it hasn't been a common practice in USA/Europe to purchase a gram of gold each month?
We can say that people in Europe don't know that are the bitcoins and this is the reason they don't buy them, but they must know what is the gold.

[o48o]

I have read the answers, and I must say that I still don't understand the subject.
It is not really important, that you can't use gold for paying via the internet or buying a dinner in a cafe. Bitcoin is not suited for this well to, and this feature not needed for using the main aspect of bitcoins - storing relatively big amout of money, for accumulating money for e.g. buying a house. If we buy bitcoins or gold for storing money, this means that we "lend" money to other people with relatevely honest conditions (more honest than lending the money to banks).
I have found that the price of gold has increased twice in last 5 years. So why it hasn't been a common practice in USA/Europe to purchase a gram of gold each month?
We can say that people in Europe don't know that are the bitcoins and this is the reason they don't buy them, but they must know what is the gold.

Ok now i am lost. How are you lending money when you buy bitcoins? There's a reason that buying and lending are different words.

And many countries already have gold reserves. For example USA has 8,133.46 metric tons of it. So plan of buying 1 gram per month would mean that in 100 years they would have increased their supply for 1,2kg more of of it. How would buying in this scale would be beneficial to them?

You can literally just get 1 gram gold just by recycling 5 kg of used smart phones. Tons of gold are lost for not recycling e-waste.