Gold probably started out as a toy. Humans learned to manipulate metal with gold around 40k years ago. It sparked metallurgy industries (e.g. Bronze Age, Iron Age). They advanced human civilizations. Gold use as money probably predated any written history. It's likely making a comeback after a 30-year recession.

https://bitflate.org/post/2019/11/29/how-gold-became-money.h...