> What future does an asset have if people don't actually buy stuff with it?
People don't buy stuff with gold, but it's been a viable store of value for a long time.
That being said, the burden of proof to show that Bitcoin is going to be a viable store of value is simply enormous. Further, gold has a number of characteristics that make it fairly unique; nobody is running around saying "gold is great, but have you considered tantalum?". If you want to put a bunch of precious metal in a vault, gold is clearly a good default choice. Whereas Bitcoin is anything but unique now, and is not an obvious default choice.
People don't buy stuff with gold, but it's been a viable store of value for a long time.
That being said, the burden of proof to show that Bitcoin is going to be a viable store of value is simply enormous. Further, gold has a number of characteristics that make it fairly unique; nobody is running around saying "gold is great, but have you considered tantalum?". If you want to put a bunch of precious metal in a vault, gold is clearly a good default choice. Whereas Bitcoin is anything but unique now, and is not an obvious default choice.