You are right. I would say, gold is only potential money. Nonetheless, even if only potentially, it's still money.
That's why we call central banks' gold a part of their monetary reserves.
That's why we call central banks' gold buying and selling a part of their monetary policy.
And by the way, that's why - unlike any other commodity - we trade gold on the Forex.
But in order to be actual money, gold should be used as medium of exchange in our everyday's life.
In its physical form, that's impossible, at least within a modern society.
Through paper or digital certificates, it didn't work.
Maybe blockchain and DLT will help, thanks to the advantages these new technologies offer compared to traditional digital transactions, particularly in terms of transparency, security and traceability.
It's sad to see how these new technologies are despised within goldbugs circles, while they could be gold's best allies in building some kind of new gold standard.
It my view, this "conservative" attitude towards these new technologies is one of the main obstacles on the way to make gold money again
Cryptos suffer critical flaws that make them unworkable as money:
(1) promises to transfer cryptos in the future cannot be made legally enforceable since the technology does not admit of transfer or seizure subject to court order.. In all cases, the private keys are necessary to perform any transfers.
(2) hard forks cause too much confusion surrounding which subsequent block chain or ledger is the
real one.
(3) There is a custodial problem surrounding safe keeping of the Crypto-linked gold. Under a gold-blockchain linked system I presume that all of the gold is held in a central location and the cryptos representing ownership are transferred? In that case there is a high likelihood of the gold disappearing and being unrecoverable. Crypto entities are not centrally regulated, they are distributed by nature. So it would be up to any given exchange to ensure the gold backing.. Exchanges, by and large, do not have a proven track record of ensuring the safe keeping of anything.
(4) As far as I can tell, adding block chain technology provides no better gold ownership experience than a gold ETF. Currently an ounce of gold equivalent can be purchased via etf, and held as long as desired. Then, when cash is needed the ETF can be converted to it and the cash used in commerce. Since we will never achieve wide spread acceptance of cryptos as actual currency, one would still have to convert the crypto to cash and then use the cash in commerce. Add in all of the risk surrounding being a legal quagmire, custodial problems, and forking issues, I don’t see the cryptos providing benefits.
So, as I see it cryptos provide only drawbacks.
Gold is a great asset to add to a portfolio. It has provided a stable place to store wealth throughout the ages. Buy a few coins and put them in a safe. Or put a small portfolio percentage in a gold ETF as a financial asset backed by gold. Its as simply as that really.
Don’t speculate in cryptos. And if you do, assume that the money is already gone when you buy.
Cryptos will bring only sadness.