Better hope you never run out of fellows then (and also that digital technology doesn't ever allow gold to do all these wonderful things)
Discussion
The same goes for gold, your store of value depends on someone wanting to actually buy it from you for something else. If we could send gold through an Ethernet cable that would be absolutely magic, imagine how wonderful the world would be if gold could teleport over the internet, hide it behind a VPN, divide it up into a billion bite sized chunks and transact with it at the speed of light. If that's the fate of bitcoin then I'll happily concede that I chose wrong and join the new sound money world, I just highly doubt that will happen.
Claims on gold can be digitally transferred already
And no, gold's value does not depend entirely on chains of speculation. I can bring my gold to a dentist and have him fill a tooth. Or trade it to someone with a cavity for that purpose.
Where Bitcoin you will only ever trade to another speculator.
Which is all well and good in fiat world where everyone is a speculator.
But don't you see the problems with fiat world?
Claims, yes, which require trust, who's currency is BRICS going to trade in, seems like a big basket of bad deals. Maybe they'll follow through on using gold, maybe the CIA sinks a tanker carrying a pallet of it.
Do I see a problem with it ultimately being based on speculation? I do on something of a risk adjusted basis, I did more so before it had any trading value, less when it entered common sentiment, less when countries started using it as a currency, and less now that its in contention as an option for international trade in a world where countries can't trust each other and the world reserve currency hangs in the balance. I'll be evermore satisfied as further developments come, be it geopolitical or code.