But only with bitcoin can you eliminate counterparty risk.
That is a fallacy, you can use the same technology used in bitcoin to facilitate the virtual transfer of gold atoms
No you can't without involving counterparty risk (to a third party): You could use a bitcoin-like system to track ownership of some (existing or non-exisiting) gold. But that would introduce counterparty risk. There would need to be a place to claim the gold run by some guy everyone would have to trust.
Owning the keys to some bitcoin is indeed equivalent to owning physical gold. No counterparty risk.
but you still can get scammed when buying something with bitcoins by the other party. I would even consider the trustless structure of bitcoin one of it's greatest weaknesses.
You can get scammed on the "delivery of the goods"-side of the transaction, not the bitcoin-side of it.
In detail in order to use bitcoin you have to use it in an environment which can provide you with some trust structure, be it the forums, btc-otc, silkroad, etc..
I still consider it somewhat likely that some day some web-of-trust structure will be available from within the blockchain,
I consider this unlikely. This would require introducing some sort of system for identification which would weaken the privacy aspects. There would be tremendous resistance by large groups.
that's why I am still longterm bullish on it, but until that issue is solved I merely think of price increases as an investment bubble. And besides some daytrading I don't have any personal use for it. I am considering doing something about this issue but I am not that of a programmer... (No I won't hire you either
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As I guesstimated in another thread, only 0.25 USD/BTC of value stem from bitcoins actual use for transactional purposes. The rest is store-of-wealth and speculation.
I have no personal use for the gold-coin I have, not even daytrading. Only thing I do is admire it from time to time. Yet I'm not bearish on gold.