He's not ready for a relationship

Note: This is a long distance thing. We haven't physically met each other yet. I'm 22, he's 20. I've been in relationships before; he has never been in one.

I've known this guy for about 4 years now. We chatted on and off a couple of times, but only started to grow closer last October. We both have feelings for each other, and I guess you can say we're dating. To him, it feels like we're already in a relationship, and I feel that way too. The thing is, we aren't officially together yet, so I don't actually have the "girlfriend status" despite the fact that we treat each other like we're a couple. He said he wants to be together with me, but he isn't ready for a relationship yet. He also feels that relationships aren't 100% for him.

So I asked him a couple questions:
1) Whether it feels to him like we're in a relationship already
2) What will be different about us if we were in a relationship compared to how we are now
3) If he answers that there would no difference, what about a relationship with me is he not ready for
4) How long he will take to be ready and certain.

To these questions, he answered:
1) Yes, it feels like we're a couple
2) He doesn't think anything would be different
3) The status of a relationship scares him
4) He doesn't know but I'll be the first to know

I feel that his fear of the status of a relationship might hint at a fear of commitment? There might be more to his unreadiness too, like how it's gonna be a long distance relationship (he said before that he fears we might not meet in the future, but I told him that I'm willing to do whatever it takes for us to meet).

The whole thing with the long distance doesn't bother me at all. I'm a firm (or you could say naive, if you don't believe the same) believer of the idea that love knows no boundaries and transcends time and distance.

Right now, I'm just really unsure of everything and am at a loss of what to do. This issue of him being unready for a relationship has been around for a while. I'm not sure if I should keep waiting for the day he'd be ready for us to be together "officially," or if I should just stop waiting because he might never be ready. Part of me believes that we'll eventually get together and wants to keep waiting; but the other part of me wants to just accept the possibility that we might never be together, and fears the heartbreak and disappointment if he were to come to the decision that he doesn't want us to move to the next level.

Any advice at all would be deeply appreciated. If anyone has any questions about him/us/me, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer them. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and sorry for the long post.