I was at one of the Berkshire annual meetings when he commented on that. He said, "why would I keep a bunch of yellow metal? In ten years, I still have the sa

I was at one of the Berkshire annual meetings when he commented on that. He said, "why would I keep a bunch of yellow metal? In ten years, I still have the same amount of gold. But if I buy a great business like Coca-Cola, in ten years the employees of Coca-Cola will have been working hard to expand the business and I'll have more than when I started. So buying gold is kind of stupid." (It's been a number of years, so this is a paraphrase) Gold actually does have intrinsic value, even if it isn't the best investment: it is a metal, it doesn't tarnish or corrode, it looks nice, and it is easily malleable. So gold gets used for electronic contacts (no corrosion, good conductivity) and jewelry (pretty, doesn't corrode, malleable) come to mind. Gold hasn't been used as a coin in years, but is still valuable, thus demonstrating that it has intrinsic value. What can you make out of bitcoin? Nothing. If everyone lost their bitcoin keys (and therefore could not use them as a medium of exchange,) you could do nothing with them. Hence, no intrinsic value. He is pointing out that bitcoin is medium of exchange, not something with intrinsic value. A check has no intrinsic value, either (e.g. an expired paycheck), it's entire value lies in being a medium of exchange, not within itself.