Paper currency can be used to pay taxes in a country, and settle debts with people who have to pay taxes in a country. I can issue my own currency and it will be worth something to people who want something from me.

And bitcoin is the only currency that can be used to pay for storing data in the world's most secure distributed timestamp database (the Bitcoin blockchain).

Gold has utility besides its currency value; it's easy to work, highly conductive and non-reactive, making it ideal for many industrial and aesthetic purposes.

Paper currency is backed by a government promise. Of course, if people lose faith in a state or a government persistently debases the fiat currency, people will lose confidence in it. But as I've pointed out before, while there have been many hyperinflationary episodes, it's not that frequent of a problem relative to the number of countries and currencies in existence.

> gold and the paper currency is printed on is only worth something because people think they are worth something

Gold has value. It can be used by dentists. It can be used in electronics. It has been inherently valuable for millennia.

As I said, paper currency is too complex a topic to go into fully here. Unlike gold, it obviously is not inherently valuable. You can look at Weimar German marks, Confederate dollars etc. to see that. Or even a US 1978 dollar versus a US 2014 dollar, to some extent. People who think Bitcoins can be worth something because the dollar seems to have some value are going to learn a hard lesson.

> Gold has value. It can be used by dentists. It can be used in electronics. It has been inherently valuable for millennia.

This is a moot point. The value of gold is almost totally unrelated to its utility.

the dollar's 'inherent' value is linked to the long term stability of the US regime, which has a lot more utility than dental fillings

And it's backed by the faith in the US military to enforce US sovereignty and interests.