Zach Weinersmith, author of Soonish, said on social media that the only argument I've heard about cryptocurrencies is that they make sense within the framework of believers themselves, who don't want a centralised currency issuer. But within that framework, why not just use gold?

To this, Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ether, replied that gold is very inconvenient, it is difficult to use, especially when transacting with untrusted parties, and it does not support secure storage options such as multiple signatures. At this point, gold has a lower adoption rate than cryptocurrencies and therefore cryptocurrencies are the better choice.