I hear what you're saying, but that's not the scenario I'm talking about. When I say going back to the gold standard, I mean actually going back to the gold standard in the sense that 1 dollar = X unchanging ounces of gold and the money printer shuts all the way off. Which is why I think it's super unlikely.

Ultimately you're right - we've already run that experiment, we printed more money than could be redeemed for gold, and when that got out of hand we just cut the ties to gold. If for some crazy reason we went back to gold, there's no reason to think this wouldn't happen again.

I'm just making the hypothetical point that if the US gov actually learned from its mistake, and actually stuck to gold in a real way and didn't print more money, bitcoin would have a legitimate competitor, at least for a while.

EDIT: Some Austrians like Schiff think this is actually going to happen (which is crazy imo) and that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are going to crash as soon as we go back to sound money that "has a track record". Like I said, that's not a real fear of mine. Just an interesting one to ponder.