This topic seems to really get people all worked up.  It is astounding how much power 'money' has over people.  But how many of us really know what it is?  I explored this topic a few years ago and found some interesting things.  But to make sure we are all communicating about the same things, it is important that we cover some basics first.  

real money 1.  Money that has metallic or other intrinsic value, as distinguished from paper currency, checks, and drafts. - Blacks Law Dictionary 8th Edition

To be clear, what the system defines as real money is things like gold, silver, copper or other commodities that people have used to trade with for thousands of years.  

paper money. Paper documents that circulate as currency - Blacks Law Dictionary 8th Edition

Paper money came about as a result of people placing their gold in the gold smiths vault.  The gold smith would then give them a receipt on paper, essentially a promise to pay the individual an equivalent amount of gold when they return that receipt.  Peopled found it easier to carry paper around, so they started trading these receipts instead of gold.  This is the foundation behind gold backed currency.  At any time, one should be able to go to the bank / government or gold smith to get their gold.  

Fiat money. Paper currency not backed by gold or silver. - Blacks Law Dictionary 8th Edition

In case you cannot see it, the bottom says "THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER"

Fiat currency is what modern governments and banking institutions use now.  The gold standard has been abandoned for many years.  Legal tender is nothing more than a statutory obligation to force the creditor to accept an offer of payment in a specific form.  This 'currency' can be anything and is nothing more than a promise to pay, an IOU, a debt instrument aka a promissory note.

"The $5 bank-note in question was a promissory note within the meaning of s. 176(1) of the Bills of Exchange Act.” … “Its quality of being itself legal tender was not incompatible with it being a promissory note.” - Bank of Canada v. Bank of Montreal, [1978] 1 S.C.R. 1148 (1977) 

What that means is that the bank notes in your wallet are nothing but promissory notes from a central bank and your government is forcing creditors to accept these debt instruments as payment for debt.  It is insane really.  The troubling thing is that these debt instruments were created out of debt as well.  All the fiat currency in circulation is created out of debt.  Add interest (usury) to the equation and it is impossible to pay off all the debt.  As a result, people end up falling into a debt trap and the global elite are laugh all the way to their banks as they end up owning the world and enslaving mankind.

Nehemiah V:7  "Then I consulted with my self, and I rebuked the Nobles, and the rulers, and said unto them, You exact usury, every one of his brother. And I set a great assembly against them"

Usury is an evil, wicket concept that we should never have agreed to participate with it.  I refuse to charge other people interest on anything.  Instead we should be using forgiveness!  If the rich of the world forgave all the debts owed to them, it would free the entire planet from their death grip and they would still be rich.

“It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”  - Henry Ford

“Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes it's laws” -Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild 

“Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create deposits, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take it away from them, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But, if you wish to remain the slaves of Bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create deposits.”  - SIR JOSIAH STAMP, President of the Bank of England in the 1920's

Mortgage - 1390, from O.Fr. morgage (13c.), mort gaige, lit. "dead pledge"  - Online Etymology Dictionary

 A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography for security.  Some of the cryptocurrencies are backed by work which adds value to the currency.  Bitcoin for example requires computers to chew on complex algorithms to find the next bitcoin token and when found it is then added to the blockchain.  This is an attempt to keep others from creating too many bitcoin which would flood the market, devalue the currency and potentially crash it.  

This is a real and present danger and fiat currencies are at risk of this very scenario as central banks have been printing money like crazy and soon inflation will crash these currencies.  Inflation, the printing of more currency, is what causes the value of the currency to fall.  We see this in the sharp increases in the prices of commodities, good and services year over year.

The Steem cryptocurrency is also a digital and virtual currency which is backed by work too.  Except this work is done by people adding value to the currency through the authoring of documents such as this one.  The higher the quality of the document, the stronger the value of the currency.  

The danger of fiat currency

We have all been taught that inflation is normal.  But it is not normal.  It is a covert way for the banks to steal from people without them realizing it.  By flooding the market with more money, they end up owning half of the value within that market and drive up the prices for everyone else.  Here is a chart on the price of wheat over a 30 year period.  This would normally be explained to us that the price of wheat has increased three fold (300%) over that 30 year period.

However, if we decide to trade for wheat using other forms of payment (real money) we will find that the price of wheat has actually dropped slightly over time.  The next graph shows this slight decrease if we paid for the wheat using silver instead.

But what if you don't have silver?  Well, perhaps somebody was able to grow sugar instead.  So lets see how much wheat we could by if we traded it for sugar.

The graph looks somewhat different than the one for silver only because the two commodities prices fluctuate as well.  But over time, the price of wheat has actually dropped in comparison.  I could continue with other commodities as well, but I think you get the point.

The only reason prices go up when using fiat currency is because the banks flood the market with more currency, through inflation, which causes THE PURCHASING POWER OF THE CURRENCY TO DROPPING LIKE A STONE!!!

The price increases of commodities should only be associated with supply and demand, not the currency.  Lots of wheat one year, then the price drops.  Not so much wheat, then the price should increase.  So depending on which type of money we use, will depend on our capacity to trade with one another.

So what are we to do?

Fiat currency is dead.  I don't expect it to last much longer.  I keep a little bit of real money sitting around and I've also starting to play around with cryptocurrencies as well.  When the fiat currencies crash, people will rush to other forms of currencies / money in order to have their immediate needs met.  The other forms of money will help in the short term and that is why I would encourage people to have some of it around.  

The cryptocurrencies are dependent on the internet, electricity, computers and a complex infrastructure.  There are some risks associated with these currencies.  But in the end, the best currency is growing food and producing your own commodities.  Potatoes, tobacco, eggs, milk and other produce are things that can be used as a currency and people can also eat or consume them as well.  We cannot eat electrons, gold or silver, but we can eat potatoes, wheat, eggs and milk.  

I advocate that we all find ways to grow produce and other consumables and learn how to trade these for what we need.  Cryptocurrencies, gold and silver have their place and may help pay for the infrastructure needed in order to get our needs met, like tools, seeds, books, etc.  Don't get me wrong on that point.  All I'm saying is that it is wise to build a multi-level strategy for when the fiat currency system crashes and burns.  

The final demise of the fiat currency

This is going to be a world defining moment when the banks currency  comes crashing down.  There are many bloggers, reporters and experts that talk about this pending collapse.  Because it is not backed by anything but their promise, there is no value in it at all.  A move towards value based currencies will save people from starvation.  It may be hard to believe, but a potato is a value based money system.  When people are hungry, they will value it a great deal.  This is the strategy we use.  I have millions of seeds to grow tobacco as well.  I don't smoke but lots of people do.  We are prepared to grow lots of food for when the collapse comes.  The value is in our ability to save lives and feed people.  

Fiat currency will NEVER be able to accomplish this goal.   

Want to learn more about money?

There are a ton of resources out there to teach about fiat currency, real money, paper money, cryptocurrencies, etc.  However, I found the following resources to be particularly interesting and informative.

Coins Financial School - click on this link to download the pdf book written in 1894