Why now though? Gold has been valuable for about 6,000 years.
We've had plenty of industrial era and information era catastrophes where "gold is useless" , yet a gold ring would still get you smuggled out of the communist regime, a length of gold wire would still get you food, and gold jewelry would still be the best way to move value when the government puts restrictions.
Gold is probably the best thing to hold in economic uncertainty - up until the point where social order breaks down and it becomes the second best thing to hold.
We've had plenty of industrial era and information era catastrophes where "gold is useless" , yet a gold ring would still get you smuggled out of the communist regime, a length of gold wire would still get you food, and gold jewelry would still be the best way to move value when the government puts restrictions.
Gold is probably the best thing to hold in economic uncertainty - up until the point where social order breaks down and it becomes the second best thing to hold.