Gold is "real" because the intrinsic qualities that underpin the value of gold are constant and inherent to its chemical composition. Conversely, the qualities

Gold is "real" because the intrinsic qualities that underpin the value of gold are constant and inherent to its chemical composition. Conversely, the qualities that underpin the value of blockchain tokens are an emergent property of a complicated and expensive technical system that sits on top of an even more complex system (the internet) that is dependent on a functioning electrical grid (a brittle dependency in many places) all of which requires active maintenance at every level. If you lock a nugget of gold away for 5000 years in an unbreachable time capsule, it will still be a pliable and lustrous metal when you dig up, if you do the same thing with a wallet private key, you can't even be sure if the token's network exists much less all the infrastructure that it depends on to even exist.