I see a lot of people here confused about crypto. Some of this is shillery, some of this is justifiable skepticism, and some of this is outright lazy thinking.
Let me simplify it. Stop making metal compete with crypto. Both crypto and metal have advantages and disadvantages. Both of them can be used to protect yourself from inflation and thieving governments. One of the main advantages of crypto is it is invisible, so you can walk across a national border with a billion dollars in your pocket and nobody has a clue. One of the advantages of metal is you can still use it if the power goes off.
We are used to having technology be used against us, like Facebook, Google, facial recognition, surveillance tech, etc. We need to consider the possibility that we can use technology to our benefit (think 3d-guns). Whoever leaked the Bitcoin project online (probably some whitehat NSA researcher) probably paid with their life to give us this tech. I think Bitcoin was never supposed to be open source, that only banks would be able to mine it and make wallets. Instead, now anybody can make their own currency with just a little bit of programming knowledge. Crypto is open source, meaning, anyone can read, copy and modify the code.
Think about it, do you think the ATF created 3d printed guns to control us? Would you give your farm animals the ability to create their own currency when you control them primarily thru central banking?
The feds desperately don't want the survivalists to start using crypto. I've personally been threatened by the feds for telling rich people how to get some of their money into crypto.
TL;DR:
Stack metal AND Buy crypto
And buy guns and homeschool your kids and grow your own food and filter your own water and stop watching TV and stop using Facebook and all the other good stuff you are already doing.
I fail to see how that is unless you are using a very specific type of crypto coin. ...all others are on a public ledger and more or less easy to follow if you know what you are doing. Obfuscation methods are not as safe as absolute anonymous coins.
The problem I have with these coins, is not their potential use as a transfer method. In my mind these coins can easily be hooked up to an asset and be transferred, the same as with a piece of paper stating origins and allodial title.
The problem I see is trustless. The call for a trustless medium of exchange is part of a larger problem occurring in western society: one of alienation, of digitization of diminishing human contact within the sphere of life. These same arguments can be leveled against payments by plastic card, self-service at supermarkets, etc. It is all so efficient, while in actuality, due to rising costs due to inflating of the money supply, we are starving for normal human interaction.
Our food comes from everywhere, except our own soil. We do not give back, but our soil is enriched by artificial fertilizers. There is no linkage between the man and woman and our soil.
Our cultures are enriched by artificial infusion of aliens, further dissolving this bond. And in the end, we all have become separated from our land and have become co-dwellers in a strange land.
Our once useful system of trust based on a balance between Gold and Silver, our word, is eroding very quickly.
Of course the private element of crypto is being propagandized, but is it really? All the exchanges are part of the system. They have your data, your ID, your wallet number, etc, etc. In Europe, you cannot even buy gold or silver, without having your ID on file.
And with the flip of a switch, you are out of your coins. Of course you' d be better of having these in cold-storage. But then again.
It seems logical to diversify your assets. But on my list, crypto does not score very high. Little flasks with booze? yeah ...
Even with metal, you should have a way to test. If you read the Bitcoin white paper, it uses the phrase "without a trusted third party", which is perhaps more in line with your values than "trustless". There's always some trust involved in a transaction, but the ethos is that it concerns the buyer and seller, not a pyramid builder thousands of miles away.