There are drawbacks to shipping gold bars to pay for every major trade. And for a currency backed by gold some trusted country has to hold the gold and promise to deliver it if asked. At present the only country that could fill that role isn’t Russia, China, India, or Brazil, it is Switzerland.
“There are drawbacks to shipping gold bars to pay for every major trade. “
No one does that. They simple move gold from one country’s vault to another. We do that.