The so called "gold bugs" have been right all along, just none of those guys know enough about bitcoin to articulate why. The fact is, bitcoin does NOT function as a store of value, period. The way bitcoin is designed pigeonholes it into acting as a settlement layer, and what is the #1 attribute needed for being a settlement layer? ...being a store of value.
A settlement layer has to compete with or beat gold as a store of value. Bitcoin cannot accomplish that task so it has to do something else besides being a settlement layer or there is no point!
I agree that bitcoin is not a good enough store of value at the moment and it may never be. What chastens me is that despite all the strides forward bitcoin has made, many gold bugs still dismiss it off hand. For them it is still 2013, a ponzi, a pyramid, beanie babies, a scam, just electrons etc etc.
But no one expects (or expected) bitcoin, a digital currency that can only exist because of the internet, to be born fully formed. It had to survive & it has done so. I'd say it is becoming less volatile or at least a less risky proposition as a medium of exchange (see here
http://boombustblog.com/blog/item/9277-reference-reggie-middleton-s-bitcoin-investment-risk-vs-reward-calculator-to-compare-btc-to-eur,-gbp,-gold-stocks). Maybe as it matures and expands (and network security & price increase with it) it will become a SoV?
It may never outdo physical gold, but it should have a shot at being the online, digital version of it. It may never be a long term store of value a'la gold, but as an asset of limited supply in an insecure, untrustworthy digital world it is a good bet to increase in value. If that increase in value becomes more stable & measured as the ecosystem expands, who's to stay it can't be a digital SoV counterpart to physical gold?