[stale2002]

What if someone comes to your house and steals your gold bars in a vault?

That's the same thing as stealing your Bitcoin.

If my private keys are in cold storage in a vault, it isnt any easier to steal that, than if my Bitcoin was instead gold bars.

[jedberg]

Gold bars in a vault are at least something of value, and not just bits on a drive. The physical gold can be used to make things. What can you do with the bits on a drive?

[astrange]

That's not the reason gold is a popular reserve. It's just hard to inflate, and we've decided to pretend it's valuable because the alternative would be inconvenient. Like Amazon shares and the concept of web advertising.

[sharemywin]

That argument could be made for any intellectual property and it would be wrong.