The only substantial thing backing fiat currencies is debt, huge amounts of it. Physical silver and gold will go back to being the only money if or rather when it all falls apart. Cryptos are great until the next X20 solar flare.
One of the most fortunate things that ever happened to me was to grow up in the Humansville school district.
It was there, in the seventh grade, Miss Charlotte taught us kids about fiat currency.
Then only the Swiss had gold backed currency and now the Swiss are like the other 194 nations on earth.
Every nation on this earth has a population that wants to earn income to raise families, pay for housing, and buy stuff in general.
The government declares a certain token is money.
If the government prints unlimited amounts of it the currency becomes
almost but not quite worthless.
So all wealthy nations have independent central banks free from political manipulation that raise and lower interest rates charged to member banks to regulate the currency supply.
So long as Jerome Powell remains able to raise and lower interest rates, the money supply will be stable.
But if he woke up evil one morning,,,,it would be bad, you know?
But like control of nuclear weapons, there’s not any other way to do it than put all our eggs in one basket.