[bleakcabal]

Besides being used in jewellery, gold and silver have other practical applications, particularly gold.

It's used in electronics, aerospace and medicine among other fields. Industries are interested in buying gold for it's practical applications.

[OJFord]

But by that definition cash is useless.

I'm not a cryptocurrency fan, but I don't think this is a good argument against it, anything people ascribe value to (however dumb one thinks it is) has.. value.

If I can swap a bitcoin for $20k then a bitcoin is just as useful as $20k.

[alangibson]

Rice and beans have a hell of a lot more utility then silver and gold. The later definitely don't derive their value from utility.

[plq]

Sure, but the price of gold doesn't really follow industry trends -- it's got more to do with the fact that it's a historical store of value / object of desire for the masses.