Diamond prices are down 60% since a 2011 high, and they are still falling. It's not all down to lab-grown diamonds, demand is down too, especially in China.

No one can lab-grow gold yet, so its rarity and scarcity protect its value, but that will end too. It's just a question of when. China launched an asteroid touch-down mission this week, which will make it the 4th country/region to do so, after Europe, the US & Japan.

How soon will it be feasible to mine asteroids? Who knows, but a breakthrough in space propulsion might mean the prospect happens quickly when it does. It's possible gold has twenty years or less of being high value left.

The $80 Billion Diamond Market Crash Leaves De Beers Reeling

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[–] HumanBehaviorByBjork@hexbear.net 49 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

i mean it would take a total restructuring of the economy for asteroid mining to be even twice the cost of terrestrial mining. i'll be honest i think nine tenths of anything labelled "futurism" is just bullshitting and hoping one of your predictions works out.

[–] HumanBehaviorByBjork@hexbear.net 31 points 4 days ago (3 children)

sorry i can't get over this on a site that otherwise mostly values critical reasoning and some semblance of materialism will read a post saying that asteroid mining could "maybe" be profitable in "20 years" and no one asks them how exactly they arrived at that estimate or what that's based on. is China the magic word? are we doing Abundance Communism?

[–] LaGG_3@hexbear.net 23 points 4 days ago

asteroid mining could "maybe" be profitable in "20 years"

It's a very my-hero claim lol

[–] Philosoraptor@hexbear.net 7 points 4 days ago

The site skews younger, and 20 years feels like a very long time when you're 25.

[–] Le_Wokisme@hexbear.net 6 points 4 days ago

some rich guy who's an anti-goldfinger space mining a shitton of gold to crash the gold market because he shorted it somehow is more likely than a legit venture.

[–] LaBellaLotta@hexbear.net 17 points 4 days ago

This may be the last bastion on the Internet for persnickety people calling BS on the casually hyper optimistic idealism that is just rampant these days.

[–] RedWizard@hexbear.net 15 points 4 days ago

Oh for sure. I shared this more because of the plunge in diamond prices. Marx stays winning, yet again.