My point is that gold has similar properties to Bitcoin. That is, there is limited supply, very limited government control and many people treat it as a store

My point is that gold has similar properties to Bitcoin. That is, there is limited supply, very limited government control and many people treat it as a store of value. You said earlier that "Currencies are enforced and controlled by central, powerful authorities". There is no central authority for gold yet it has been a currency for thousands of years. You seem to accept the special status of gold by implying that a cryptocurrency could be effective as a currency if it was backed by gold. So my question is what makes gold so special? Why can't the current design of cryptocurrencies be just like gold, only more convenient?