Ian, they seem to be talking about the possibility of it becoming A reserve currency in future if changes are made. Right now, it isn't even China's main currency for those purposes, let alone the whole world's: China itself uses it for less than one-sixth of international trade.

Someone I knew from university recently launched a popular new electronic product. It's priced in US dollars. He's in England, the device is manufactured in China - but still they use dollars for it, not pounds or yuan.

Gold is still a safe camodity and there is very little chance of the price going down. All countries have traded in gold since time began, i dont think it will change in out lifetime.
As long as gold exists and has some purpose, it will still be traded - but it's been a long time now since payments were made in gold rather than dollars. Of course the price will go down at some point, like any commodity: the alternative would be an economic perpetual motion machine. Just ask Gordon Brown, who managed to dump Britain's gold at one of the lowest prices possible...