Back to the anvil.
Even with theoretical studies being made, hydrogen is pretty hard to get to behave like a metal. The very first of the metals, lithium, behaves the way it does because the electron in its outer shell is loosely enough held that it may be transformed into an electrical current. The electrons in the first electron shell are too tightly held to be moved in an electrical current. Hydrogen has only one shell, lithium has a second shell.
Maybe dilithium crystals really are what we need.