[gtt]

Gold is (relatively) easy to store, transfer, hard to obtain, really limited supply -- the qualities that make commodity good money. Uselessness of gold is actually useful here -- transactions with it does not distort markets. Imagine if we used coffee beans as "gold" -- then changes in monetary velocity would impact consumers, who would be forced to stash it.

[slg]

So real estate?

[gtt]

Hard to transport.

[slg]

Sorry, the brevity of that comment apparently didn't convey my point well enough. Real estate is an example of what you theorized would happen with coffee beans. It is a useful resource that is also used for speculative investment. It is something everyone needs, but as a society we have decided its price should also always be increasing. This has a net negative impact on society.

Bitcoin existing doesn't stop people from speculatively investing in real estate, so I don't think people will just start speculating on coffee beans or something similar if Bitcoin goes away.