I love your conclusion that Bitcoin is simply the ancient bookkeeping updated for universal trust via cryptographic security rather than personal knowledge of the counterpart. Regarding money overall, I listen to those who consider gold or other assets with intrinsic value as the premier version and wonder, if that is the case, why have those assets been demonetized? (Perhaps, the fact that governments cannot control the supply of it has made it the enemy of their grandiose plans for running their respective countries.) It strikes me that the thing that makes gold unique is not merely that it is easily divisible and portable, but also that it is permanent. The concept of commodity backed currencies using things like oil or food seem to have an inherent flaw, those commodities are consumed, and at least in oil's case, there is a finite, albeit still extremely large, supply. But as you rightly point out, food has a much more important use case than as a store of value, but instead as a store of energy for our existence. That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense as 'money'.
In the end, I think I come down to the concept of 'unit of account' as perhaps the defining feature of money as it encompasses its transactional features as well. The store of value feature feels, especially in the current world of fiat currencies, as a much less permanent feature and unfortunately, given the way civilization has evolved along with its various national leaderships, one that is destined to diminish until there is a true reset of everything.
I love your conclusion that Bitcoin is simply the ancient bookkeeping updated for universal trust via cryptographic security rather than personal knowledge of the counterpart. Regarding money overall, I listen to those who consider gold or other assets with intrinsic value as the premier version and wonder, if that is the case, why have those assets been demonetized? (Perhaps, the fact that governments cannot control the supply of it has made it the enemy of their grandiose plans for running their respective countries.) It strikes me that the thing that makes gold unique is not merely that it is easily divisible and portable, but also that it is permanent. The concept of commodity backed currencies using things like oil or food seem to have an inherent flaw, those commodities are consumed, and at least in oil's case, there is a finite, albeit still extremely large, supply. But as you rightly point out, food has a much more important use case than as a store of value, but instead as a store of energy for our existence. That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense as 'money'.
In the end, I think I come down to the concept of 'unit of account' as perhaps the defining feature of money as it encompasses its transactional features as well. The store of value feature feels, especially in the current world of fiat currencies, as a much less permanent feature and unfortunately, given the way civilization has evolved along with its various national leaderships, one that is destined to diminish until there is a true reset of everything.