If you don't pay your debts or taxes then even items that you own and which are in your possession can be taken from you, thanks to the rule of law. Conversely, if someone comes along and takes it from you without legal justification, the rule of law allows you to claim it back. That same rule of law ensures that you are entitled to the gold you own that isn't in your possession.
Drawing the line at possession is arbitrary. Either way your ownership is governed by law, and is only as good as the strength of that law.
Sure, but my point is that quite a few people argue that owning crypto (or gold, which is why I also brought that up) protects you in the situation where societal structure fails, and they just obviously don't.
Yes, and I agree with that point. I just think you haven't extended it to its natural conclusion which is that if societal structure fails, even physical possession of things you own isn't going to help you if you have gangs of criminals rioting and looting. Consider for example what happened in Haiti in 2018+.
What matters is rule of law, not possession. If you have strong rule of law, you have some protection for whatever you own, possessed or not. If you have zero rule of law, you have no protection for any of it.
Having gold on your person in a societal collapse is going to be somewhat better than having a slip of paper that says you own gold (in theory you could barter with it) but neither is going to help you much. When the shit actually hits the fan to that degree, the best thing you can be is heavily armed.
But my personal plan is to just hope the shit never hits the fan to that degree while I'm alive and not really worry about it. Its effectively a singularity event beyond which I don't think there's much point in planning for it as an individual.
Drawing the line at possession is arbitrary. Either way your ownership is governed by law, and is only as good as the strength of that law.