“No one I know buys and sells in gold. “
I’ve seen transactions in gold, as well as pesos (for instance). Both are often discussed in terms of their “dollar value”.
Perhaps a more important question is what dollars will be worth in a year, or ten years...in terms of dollars today.
“But, keep dreaming that your imaginary currency will stay nice and stable.”
Someone should start charts of BTC versus a good suit, BTC versus loaves of bread, and of course BTC versus ounces of gold. Putting those next to charts of dollars versus the same commodities should be instructive. :-)
This shows an incredible lack of understanding basic economics. What you are describing is simple "denominationalism". It doesn't matter what next years dollars are worth compared to today's.
Proof: Suppose everything is 10X the price of today. Your payroll is 10X, a car is 10X, a house is 10X. Are you worse off? No. No change. Fixed income folks are going to suffer, but actually there are really very few of those any more. Most COLA clauses take care of that. Look at the Social Security payments of today compared to those of 1960. Much better today with all the changes in the dollar.
Notice, if a car is 5X and a house is 10X, now we have real estate inflation. But, bitcoin is subject to this change as much as a dollar is. And, with the whims of the nerds it is probably more subject that dollar. Notice its high level of fluctuation.
After all, when the hackers begin to raid the icebox, watch bitcoins disappear and every geekoid will be scratching their scraggly beards wondering "wah happind?"