Gold has a limited supply and has an industrial use, where it is irreplaceable, creating a floor to its price. Bitcoin has no use where it is irreplaceable and thus has no price floor. They are incomparable.
Only genuine use I can imagine (In like todays real world, not the Bitcoin maximalist fantasy world) is it's a way to escape a warzone with some of your wealth in tact.
You dropped "where it is irreplaceable". The traditional hedge in such places has been to use a more stable currency, like dollars or euros, as a hedge if the national currency is subject to hyperinflation.
Yup. 10% industrial, ~45% jewelry, and ~45% bullion. Jewelry's use of gold is speculation just like bullion. People want gold or other precious metals in jewelry not because they provide the best physical properties at a given price-point (there are many superior alternatives), but only because such materials are expensive, ie. they speculatively assume the high prices will stay high and/or continue to appreciate.
If "looking nice" was the main factor, people would be buying jewelry made of materials that look identical to gold AND are more durable AND are less expensive.
it has always been generally easy to buy bitcoin. this is not 2012. Any American who can open up a brokerage account can also open a Coinbase account. Or Robinhood. Or BITO. Tons of ways to do it.
