cash under your matress is better than banks in some cases and also useful for some purposes. but for long term safety without risk of government intervention (inflation, austerity, taxation, asset freezing, and many other things.) gold is more secure, but bitcoin is even more secure. the only issue is the predictability of future value.(dont confuse third party removal security vs value/future wealth security)

gold is predictable because its controlled by manipulation of government. but bitcoin is more fluid and people once seeing an exchange manipulating values. can simple ignore that exchange and build better ones.

bitcoin can be protected in soo many ways, either personally etched into metal, wrote on paper. stored on PC locally, stored on remote system. handed to local friend handed to remote friend. the idea's are endless