Gold purely speculative, or is there any utility?

You may know about the value formula, which states:

value = utility * people * rarity

Something without utility, therefore cannot have any value.

Utility many times lies in the eyes of the beholder, that's why value many times lies in the eyes of the beholder. Nevertheless, the more people will likely see something as useful, the more people will see it as valuable.

How does this apply to gold? Is it valuable, or is it pure speculation?

Looking at the Statista page (https://www.statista.com/statistics/299609/gold-demand-by-industry-sector-share/) gold is actually incredibly useful:

1. Around 50% is used for jewelry
2. Around 5-10% is used for industrial use
3. That leaves around 40% for speculation

So, something that most people believe has basically zero utility, actually has almost 60% useful use. Quite relevant to consider this when talking about gold as a store of value… aka the formula of utility * people * rarity producing a similar output over time.