Calling any country a "laboratory" is a tell. Experimentation is fine when it is opt-in, privacy-preserving, and accountable. When it is default-on rails for money/identity, citizens become test subjects. Cash + Bitcoin are the escape valves.

India understands gold instinctively: save in something scarce, outside someone else's balance sheet. Bitcoin is that idea upgraded for a digital world - verifiable scarcity, self-custody, global portability. Zoom out. Volatility is the price of admission.

If you force me to pick ONE, I also pick Bitcoin - not because gold is bad, but because Bitcoin is gold with an API. Same 'hardness' idea, but now it's portable, instantly verifiable, self-custodied, and can settle globally without asking permission. Gold still has a role. But the 21st century needs a bearer asset that works at internet speed.

Most people don't need a 'Bitcoin wallet' UI. They need an authenticator UI. Connect a device. Back it up. Approve a request. If you can explain it to your parents, you just removed 80% of self-custody fear. Bitcoin's technical breakthrough isn't just fixed supply. It's that you can turn security into a normal daily habit, like 2FA - without trusting a bank.