Bitcoin is much like cash in that you can choose to opt out of making your money available for fractional reserve.
Why with cash many don't do that, beats me. According to Keynes, people should withdraw their cash when there is no interest to be gained ("liquidity trap"). In practice, people don't, and that makes Bitcoiners crazy: good marketing makes (especially badly informed) people act uneconomically, since they think they are saving, while they are actually investing in an indifferent manner.
Other important aspects of Bitcoin are, that it makes the money supply transparent, and everybody can validate transactions. This is not as simple with cash or gold.