I feel like we consider badges to be Hubski gold, and they're free. Just my $.02 on what the perception has seemed to me. I guess the difference is that there is no special r/lounge or anything, but otherwise, the point of Reddit gold has always seemed to me to be to highlight a comment that another user finds particularly poignant or so on. I have my own problems with the "gold" phenomenon in that sometimes gilding is used not really because the comment being gilded is so great, but basically to reinforce a discussion. A comment that is gilded gets more attention. If you are arguing someone (on Reddit or I guess here) and have the money to throw around, you could easily just gild or have your throwaways gild a few comments of yours that support your viewpoint, and because they are gilded, they are going to look like more valuable comments to readers. As a result I theorize these comments would 'naturally' accrue more upvotes and attention even if they're not actually better or more grounded than their opposition.
That doesn't mean that we couldn't monetize them. As amouseinmyhouse said:Your value add model is an interesting one and it's worked successfully in games for quite some time. The basic gist to the video game version is to open the platform as a simple, but complete, space where you gain access to more functionality through time. You can bypass the time restrictions through money. Take Team Fortress 2 for example. All of the weapons in the game that have effect on actual game play can be unlocked through actual game play, or you can spend a few bucks and buy the weapons now. Such a system could easily apply to hubski where you earn gold tokens through the slow acclimation of social capital, or you can buy them in bulk with bit capital. This is one of the more interesting systems for me, but creating such a system would take a lot of time and consideration.