I just came across an excellent presentation by John Butler of Amphora Commodities (John's bio) in which he discusses bitcoin, gold and reserve currencies throughout the ages, and the Gold Standard.
I have been following John's musings for a few years now having first seen him interviewed on The Keiser Report. I was fortunate enough to meet him at last year's Gold Symposium in Sydney. We talked about his book The Golden Revolution, and also we had a fascinating three way discussion with my mate Duncan of Anglo Far East on gold standards, fiat money and the decline of Western Civilisation over a few beers. Then I think things left that lofty plain as we were joined by the outgoing Jeff Berwick of dollarvigilante.com and we ended up in one of Sydney's swankest bars (Establishment, ironic for such a bunch of anti-establishment types) and well some things that occur during Sydney's "Gold Week" are sometimes best left there.....