Vast quantities of gold hold value still in the same way as before, only that it's done by very large organisations. This too is a western phenomenon. Indian Households currently own 25,000 tons of gold( one of the largest reserves anywhere) - China isn't too far behind AFAIR.
No. That's why we created banks to store this gold.
The reason we moved to paper and digital currencies was so governments and banks could create money out of thin air.
I thought we did it (actually the ancient Chinese did) so that we don't have to pay in bags, wheelbarrows and horse carts of heavy (as in mass) metals whenever larger transaction needed to be made?
But what do I know, conspiring about evil governments & banks trying to print money out of thin air is a much more sensible argument, right? Just as there is an article on the front page on Tether "minting" a billion USD equivalent Tether out of literally thin air ...
Well, partially correct. It was a quality-of-life thing until the banksters realized they could let out more IOUs than gold they had in the vault. From there on, it would only be a matter of time till the gold-standard becomes abolished, giving governments and banks the ability to print money at will.
Tether coins are basically the same thing. You still have to trust the neo-banks to still be holding your actual dollars somewhere in their vault. I don't, that's why I prefer not to buy bogus coins.