All currencies, in a sense, are cryptos. As currency, they are a medium of exchange. It is a mutual agreement, irrespective of their intrinsic worth. This has happened especially after the currencies went off the gold standard. Britain did so in 1931 followed by the US in 1933. The US was going through the Great Depression and Franklin Roosevelt decided to print more dollars to fund his New Deal. Before the thirties, the currencies were backed by the reserves of gold in the central bank’s vaults. Paper money was a promissory note that could be exchanged for its value.

No tie up to the gold and the currencies have become ersatz money used in board game Monopoly. Even when gold standard prevailed, its supposed value was a fabrication (there was a mismatch between the demand and supply of the precious metal due to its relative scarcity).

There were token exchanges — Roman empire paid wages to the workers in salt. It was called ‘sale’, and that word later became satary. Even cowrie shells were used as currency. These days a piece of paper with the signature of a bureaucrat promising to pay the value has acquired legitimacy. Is the value, say a particular sum, the same over a period of time? It is a make-believe value. That is why cash has been code-named in terms of several graphic terms.

Money, as a concept, is based on notional worth. It is fungible. It could become worthless by a single stroke of pen when demonetisation is announced.