We always hear talk of the term “fiat currency” when someone talks about crypto.
The word “fiat” basically means “by order” and in the financial context what it means is that by government order the currency would not be backed by any commodity.
Many of us older people always assumed that our money was backed by gold but that stopped being the case many years ago.
So our money in North America and most countries is not backed by gold or silver but it was in many places 20 and 50 years ago.
President Nixon took the USA off the gold standard during his administration in 1971 as a way to address inflation.
Britain went off the gold standard in 1931.
The Swiss franc is still considered to be the safest currency in the world because it is considered a politically neutral country.
They went off the gold standard in May 2020.
(under construction Dec 16, 2021)