“Gold can at the very least be used as a paperweight or door stop” And that justifies the otherwise ridiculous price of gold? The price of gold is far beyond its actual practical usefulness.
Unless you are expecting civilisation to collapse entirely, its not that much better as an investment or store of value.
And yet Central Banks around the world are holding tens of thousands of tons of the stuff. In many countries, gold holdings are even a state secret. It seems there are many “smart” people and people in power who want to hold a lot of this “door stop.”
Why is that?
War with China and a few high atmosphere nuke detonations and crypto turns to zero. Lead and brass will become sought after commodities then.