Sometimes, a government may print more paper currency. The practice makes currency depreciation.

A smart citizen may use gold to hedge such risk.
After longing the gold, s/he store her/his wealth in form of gold.
Gold price will increase correspondingly in case of inflation.
S/he may short the gold later, in exchange for bigger amount of paper currency.

However, government won't like this.
They still do it quietly and relentlessly.
That's why there are more and more millionaires and billionaires all over the world.