I agree gold lacks the fundamental uses as a commodity when compared with things like oil. But this is because gold is pretty close to being a currency. For hu

I agree gold lacks the fundamental uses as a commodity when compared with things like oil. But this is because gold is pretty close to being a currency. For hundreds of years, gold and silver was actual currency. It is physical, finite and well established. Gold is a well accepted standard. All "money" in the loosest sense of the word is a medium by which we can avoid swapping labour. If you grow apples and i make shoes, we can swap apples for shoes, but if you dont need 400 pairs of shoes, you need to find some way to swap them for things you do want. Hence we all agree that these little tokens will be what we use, so we can create much more complex trading arrangements. Gold is a currency because almost everybody agrees that is one way to transfer value around. And even those that dont, trust the international monetary system which will swap gold directly into whichever token your country uses at a fair rate. Bitcoin is worse off than gold because a) it isnt a physical entity. Gold is safe because it is the original incorruptible currency. I cannot just make gold. Bitcoin is a digital protocol, so it changes. Gold doesnt fork, for example. It has overwhelmingly stronger guarentees of longevity. B) only a few people believe it is useful for exchange. Close to 7 billion people believe that gold is a viable currency. To get bitcoin to be accepted widely enough to be seen in the same light as gold likely requires hundreds of years, with opportunity for disaster at every step. We are talking about changes in attitude on the order of launching a new religion.