I must preclude this post with an appeal to please forgive my total ignorance on this subject but, hey, it never stopped me before.
So, way back when, money was created as a physical form for a physical asset; for example a silver or gold coin. Then coins became a physical yet indirect representation of a physical asset (lead coin representing a share of gold). Then the physical asset backing money was removed (no more gold or silver backed currency) and we had a physical yet indirect representation of an indirect asset which amounts to a promise to make good on the money. Then with computers the physical money went away and we just had an abstract concept which represented the promise to make good on that indirect asset. Now with cryptocurrency, we have a totally abstract concept which represents the totally abstract value of a totally abstract asset. Question: How can this be heading in a good direction?