Gold is generally not free to store. If anything, it is one of the more expensive things to store safely. Also, if someone handed you a shiny yellow object say

Gold is generally not free to store. If anything, it is one of the more expensive things to store safely. Also, if someone handed you a shiny yellow object saying it's gold, you'd still need to verify it with a chemical or physical test requiring a bunch of paraphernalia, much like the cryptographic proof required for bitcoin (requiring, in turn, the internet, a computer etc). Not saying that bitcoin is a great asset, but it shares common problems with gold, albeit in a more "virtual" domain.