This is a great exploration of what's going on here without being too "pro" or "con." I see a lot of people here trying to quickly summarize "what side he's on" and I don't think that was the point here.

I think he's correctly pointing out a very human barrier to adoption. There's, for example, a reasonable argument that bitcoin might be like gold -- really valuable, but perhaps not as moveable as a currency. What the author is pointing out is that gold is different because it's shiny and pretty and you can shape into things -- and like it or not, that MEANS something, even if that something isn't easily captured in a rigorous (nerdy?) economic analysis.

I think the author would agree that it's too early to tell if the above "something" is a deal-killer or not, but it is certainly significant.