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RE: Have You Heard of Modern Monetary Theory?
All currencies, whether backed by gold, or completely limited to the digital realm, derive their value from its users. We give it value by agreeing it has value. Even gold itself as a currency only has value because of its agreed value. When you think about it, the only reason gold has any value as a currency is because it's too soft to be used like other metals and because it's rare. You can't make it, only find it, and it's hard to find.
Gold has value as a base for currency because there is going to be a roughly consistent amount of it at all times and it has inherent value since it is physical and a metal. Fiat currencies have less value than gold-backed currency in times of economy uncertainty because of the lack of trust. Like we saw in the GFC, bailing out the banks, forgiving any sort of debt, or simply printing more money (as is common in poorer countries) will devalue the currency because there is no assurance that the currency will be useful. The gold standard meant that every piece of currency could be exchanged for something with inherent value.
The gold standard also meant that excessive government spending was less likely to happen, because it is very difficult to obtain more gold. If a bank failed, the government would have a difficult time bailing them out. It limited the damage that a reckless government could do.
Cryptocurrency is completely different to fiat currencies and the gold standard and it currently has so much value due to the unregulated nature of it. Anything free and unregulated will prosper, even if there are bumps along the line. An unregulated crypto market will be successful and the big threat is government regulation.
Have you considered how gold futures push up the price of gold?
Largely irrelevant because a gold-backed currency is the primary trading currency. Bitcoin specifically is more like an investment than a currency because it's not being traded as much as it should, but is treated as a future value generator.
Given that there isn't a single gold-backed sovereign currency, I'd say that it would be very relevant if a country were to consider switching to one (though I can't imagine anyone wanting to put such a constraint on themselves).
Who's treating Bitcoin as a future value generator? It's really a wealth transfer mechanism.
Bitcoin millionaires and Bitcoin investors.
By 'value' you mean capital gains, right?
Yes. That's essentially how Bitcoin is functioning right now in my opinion.