One kind of "tinfoil hat" argument in favor of gold is that it can easily become an exchange medium in case of infrastructure collapse, I.e. banks and the internet don't work anymore. In that case its value can be immensely larger than what you're paying for it now.

My father was a geologist who spent much of his life doing exploration for gold mining companies. He was always extremely skeptical of gold as a "safe" place to put your money given how much it's pretty extreme price volatility had created massive swings in his industry.