Gold Coins expire 30 days after they are earned, with the countdown visible on your balance. Expiry is usually a way of quietly clawing back value, so it is worth explaining why it is here.
Gold measures recent contribution
It exists to recognise that you have contributed to the community lately. "Lately" is the operative word — a balance built up over two years would say something about your history, not about your current standing.
Expiry keeps the number meaning what it is supposed to mean.
Hoarding would break what it buys
Gold buys profile boosts and job-board priority. If it accumulated indefinitely, long-standing members would hold enormous balances and could keep themselves permanently prominent, while a new member with nothing would be permanently behind.
That is the opposite of a design where new members compete from day one. Expiry means visibility is available to whoever is contributing now, not to whoever has been here longest.
It is not money
Gold has no cash value, cannot be withdrawn and cannot become diamonds. Nothing with a cash price is lost when Gold expires. What expires is an option to be more visible for a while.
Spend it when it is worth most
The best moment is right after something changes — a new badge, a completed profile, a service you have started offering. Visibility is worth most when there is something new to see. Saving Gold for a better moment usually just means losing it.
The countdown is deliberate
Expiry with no warning is a trick. A visible countdown on the balance means nothing disappears without you having had the chance to use it, which is the difference between a rule and a trap.
If it expires unused
Nothing is lost that was ever cash, and more can be earned by taking part. That is exactly the behaviour the currency is designed to encourage.
