Chodpaba, this is exactly one of the reasons that led me to raise the question - this collapse is not the same as 2008... Bitcoin value could very well shoot up if people start dumping their fiat currencies for it.

As Notme says, it's highly unlikely for it to drop below $3 so I guess all one can do is buy now and try to keep some dry powder aside in case we are given a fire sale.

You don't think China and various other countries will be buying up gold?  Eventually all of the EE's gold will be in China's vaults if they don't stop selling it at the depressed Paper price..

only about 10% - 25% of all gold ever mined is in "official" hands, the rest is held privately.

I recommend you read this blog post: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/must-read-another-perspective

It deals with what's to come, the role of gold, ect.. I found it a really good read too.

Someone here was planning to 'melt tungsten' and pour it into hollowed out gold bars.  Good luck with that

Au: mp: 1337 Kelvin
W:  mp: 3695 K

You might be able to melt tungsten in a graphite or diamond crucible, but I would guess that applying and holding that much energy in the apparatus would be a challenge.  And, of course, it's likely to turn the recipient gold container into a molten mess almost instantly unless the mass was so big as to make the whole adventure rather pointless.

But anyway, it would be easy enough to drill out the gold and hammer in some pegs which is almost certainly one of the techniques used.

It would be interesting to see if there is a popularization of gold bullion in the form factor of a spaghetti noodle.  This would allow some amount of non-destructive testing based on thermal expansion, and semi-non-destructive testing by giving the unit something of a bending test.  I guess the effectiveness would depend on what sort of metallurgy is possible with tungsten in order to impact its modulus of thermal expansion and elastic characteristics.

Not to disagree with you point, but one could also argue that it is also an indication of the ridiculous value of the element.

As I think about things, one could have a pretty handy and pretty fool proof device which consists of a water bath, a bending gauge and a length gauge all in one unit.  This would measure density, thermal, and elastic properties in one fairly quick and easy run (assuming my spaghetti form factor bullion idea.)  As a optional features, throw in some sort of a spectrometer to look for other elements and maybe a piezo operated device to characterize the resonate characteristics of the sample.

I officially claim intellectual property rights over all of the above ideas

Looks like my questions may be answered sooner than I thought - silver and gold are getting annihilated while bitcoin is stable. I just stumbled across this article as well:

http://www.bitcoinmoney.com/post/23061931511/bitcoin-shtf-plan

Article makes some good points - when SHTF, there's no telling what the value of things will be. Gold and silver will be worthless if you can't find anyone to trade/sell it to. Of course, bitcoin requires an internet connection...

I'm really glad I just diversified into bitcoin as well - it's always best to put many eggs in many baskets.

Disclaimer:

Long gold
Long silver
Long canned hams
And now long bitcoin 

Spam??  Guaranteed to be the last thing on your shelf??

Gold refining and verification processes are the equivalent of Bitcoin mining. In both cases, the overhead ensures quality and security.

Thats not really true..  BTC and gold over the last 2 months have declined almost the exact same amount.   and if you look at the chart for the last 12 months, btc is anything but stable whereas gold has been trading in a fairly narrow range.