[jariel]

There are parallels, but gold has a 5000 year incumbency. It's outlasted not only Empires, but eras. It's valued by cultures that have no relationship with one another and no common past, totally independent.

It's physical so it can't be 'cracked' and people like physical things.

It's universal in how it is understood. Bitcoin is 'well understood' by basically 0.0001% of the population arguably not even most it's traders.

[jcranmer]

> It's valued by cultures that have no relationship with one another and no common past, totally independent.

Actually, not really. In historical terms, the gold standard is historically limited to cultures that existed in (direct or indirect) trading relationships with the Mediterranean culture. Notably, China (and correspondingly East and Southeast Asia) instead used a silver standard, while the New World cultures eschewed gold or silver for monetary standards.