Pirates of the Spanish Main, Pieces Of Eight popular conception wanted plunder, and gold was being shipped in fat galleons. Fiat currency was not available for them to plunder, because banknotes were not, in any significant commune, mined in Spain's new-world colonies and transported to Castile.

Pirates were not necessarily stateless. Drake sailed with a letter of marque. I'll grant there may be contemporary pirates off the horn of Africa who would be hard pressed to obtain a passport.

Blackbeard's thoughts on financial mechanisms are lost to us, sadly.

I think you're trying to explain that fiat currency is predicated on trust. Thanks; that cleared up some misconceptions.

Unfortunately, it turns out that crypto is also, on inspection, predicated on trust: chiefly, trust in the infosec of whatever party maintains your wallet. That trust has been violated maaany times. I've also personally formatted a disk holding a decent chunk of coin (fuck me for trusting myself).

A better analogy would be if gold could spontaneously vaporise and escape any container. Hydrogen is notoriously difficult to contain - it would be a more accurate metaphor.