Interestingly Satoshi wrote about the similarities between bitcoin and gold/precious metals multiple times, eg. [1], [2]. I guess it's not black and white and maybe bitcoin organically transitions from digital cash to digital gold. We'll see how it all plays out over time.

[1] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=583.msg11405#msg1140...

[2] http://p2pfoundation.ning.com/forum/topics/bitcoin-open-sour...