What Happens to Bitcoin After All 21 Million are Mined?
The difference is that say, I can give you a gold coin without paying a transaction fee, but the same cannot be done for bitcoin. This means that when all 21M of Bitcoin are mined the people transacting in bitcoin will experience an erosion in value when they transact, which may discourage transactions.
Gold derives its intrinsic value from the limited supply and easy transaction; I’m not sure if bitcoin can be the same.
Source :
https://www.investopedia.com/news/what-happens-bitcoin-after-all-21-million-are-mined/
While it is true that directly handing someone a piece of gold as payment has Zero transaction cost, in the real world the trade of gold is still quite expensive. Due to its weight there is an intrinsic transport cost even at the local level, sending physical gold overseas especially large amounts will incur significant cost. Most gold that is transacted is done through specialist companies that also have insurance overheads. While there are similarities between gold and bitcoin, when it comes to real world use, digital assets are far more efficient, thus cheaper to transact with.