[cookiecaper]

Gold is not really practical for modern commerce without first converting it into an alternate currency (passthroughs in dollars, for instance) or trusting a third-party. Bitcoin can be traded really easily, no conversion or trusted intermediary (unless you count the btc swarm) necessary.

[niggler]

For those who have forgotten, US dollars used to be certificates backed by silver:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/US-%245-...

[dragontamer]

Unless you want instantaneous transfers. Which requires you to use either a Bitcoin Bank (ie: Flexcoins), or an intermediate trusted 3rd party (Green address).

Which is the entire point of this thread of discussion. People are not liking the restrictions on Bitcoin (ie: wait X number of hashes before the transaction is complete), and are recreating "alternative currencies" for Bitcoin. Which to me... seems against the point of the medium.