Wow - what an interesting range of replies, and I'd like to make some comments and venture some opinions.

There is no "the" government, the closest is probably the Anglophone empire which controls the central banks.

Fiat currencies are not created by governments, they are created by the central banks, governments just print notes based on currency they have borrowed from the banks.

Gold is increasing in use as a currency as the US dollar loses its status as a reserve currency. Because of its high value, it is used nainly at corporate and state levels, and by major crime organisations.

Gold is legal tender in a number of countries, and the UK is one of these. The Sovereign ( £1 face value ), and the Britannia ( £100 face value ). Of course the real value is probably 10 times the face value, and I suspect they maintain their status as legal tender to help the rich to avoid various taxes.

Bitcoin will continue to increase in value in my opinion, and this will remove whole Bitcoins from the reach of most peiople. However, the Satoshi has a much more manageable value, and this could well become a generally accepted unit of international currency. Even if the value of Bitcoin increases to astronomical levels, the Satoshi still has the capability of further sub-division, for example a micro Satoshi could be used with a value of one millionth of a Satoshi.