“Gold and other precious commodities (even real estate) have drawbacks regarding their utility as a store of value that Bitcoin doesn’t have.”
Everything has drawbacks, even Bitcoin. I have a friend who has not yet recovered her big losses on Bitcoin (50% from 2 years ago).
As to stores of value - that is a matter of the intent as to use of the value. Yes, you can cash out of Bitcoin easily, and take your cash and do what you want, if that is a resson for holding it.
You can also have a master bank account that gives you easy access between your investments, checking, savings and credit accounts. You can direct purchases of new investments from checking, savings or credit and direct proceeds from investment sales to checking or savings - all electronically, from anywhere in the world. Your assets stay where they are while you go where you want, as easily as Bitcoin.
As to “crossing the Border” LOL, nearly all transactions can be conducted electronically today (including selling real estate property) and return from sales can be transferred electronically, from and to anywhere in the world. But you can’t walk into a restaurant anywhere and pay for your meal with Bitcoin, but you can with cash, a debit card or credit card.
Yes, you can “take your gold with you”, as far as retaining it and its value, by using a trusted depository account, with access to it from anywhere, as far as adding to it, or selling from it. In essence, you can go anywhere, while your gold is secure without you personally physically moving it. New purchases can be added to it and sales can be made from it. Gold (and other precious metals) as an investment has kept up with our technological age. You don’t have to move $1 million in gold across any border you choose to cross as maybe you had to one hundred years ago.
Sounds like your friend caught FOMO seeing monthly double digit gains in 2021. Piling into a visible mania isn't a good method for savings, that's pretty reckless speculation, really. Anyone dollar cost averaging into Bitcoin over the last five years is ahead in USD terms, and can point out to you that the spikes, while becoming larger nominally, are becoming smaller logarithmically.
You can also have a master bank account that gives you easy access between your investments, checking, savings and credit accounts. You can direct purchases of new investments from checking, savings or credit and direct proceeds from investment sales to checking or savings - all electronically, from anywhere in the world. Your assets stay where they are while you go where you want, as easily as Bitcoin.
The problem with this is that it requires third party trust. If the Premier decides he doesn't like the protests you donated to he can shut down your accounts.
This isn't paranoid conspiracy theory, it's recent history:
Trudeau Took a Page From Obama When He Froze Protesters' Bank Accounts
Banks are not really private businesses. "There are barriers to entry. You have to get permission to start a new bank.…The financial services industry is so intertwined with government."
That government connection means bureaucrats who regulate banks can silence government's critics by cutting off access to their money. In Canada, protesting truckers resisted pressure from police and politicians for weeks. But once Trudeau froze their money, that was the beginning of the end of their protest.
When governments can de-bank you, you are not really free.
Bitcoin's protocol doesn't require government permission for you to transfer your funds. There is no centralized point for the government to compel.
As to “crossing the Border” LOL, nearly all transactions can be conducted electronically today (including selling real estate property) and return from sales can be transferred electronically, from and to anywhere in the world.
That relies upon assumptions I think the above referenced article indicate we cannot count on. The Bitcoin protocol's decentralized ledger not only provides security against inflation, it also allows transfers without requiring any government permission. That is a property of the medium that has value. Higher in some countries than others, but still a positive property to not discount when assessing relative value for a store of value.
Yes, you can “take your gold with you”, as far as retaining it and its value, by using a trusted depository account
Could you "take your gold with you" when FDR issued Executive Order 6102?
You don’t have to move $1 million in gold across any border you choose to cross as maybe you had to one hundred years ago.
But what if you needed to? What if you were smart enough to keep your gold horde out of a third party's hands where the government could seize it. What money has better transportability than Bitcoin when walking through the airport when trying to do so with $10k in US Dollars will get it seized and the onus put on you to prove you own it?
Trying to get through Customs with a $1 million in gold? LOL Good luck!