Bitcoin and Real Money

Matt Farrell: Aww, great. There goes the cellphone.
John McClane: They knock the satellites out of the skies, now?
Matt Farrell: No, your battery ran out.
--Live Free or Die Hard

Real money determined by freedom rather than force would possess several characteristics necessary for a good money, including intrinsic value, scarcity, divisibility, recognizibility, portability, fungibility, and durability.

Cryptocurrencies are weak on several fronts. They have no intrinsic value because they are intangible constructs. More importantly, they are not scarce. Although developers claim that they can regulate their creation, the fact remains that their creation can be controlled by computer keystrokes executed fallible humans. When push comes to shove, humans are prone to print money in vain attempts to paper their way out of problems.

A good money should also be difficult to counterfeit. Hackers worldwide are no doubt laser-focused on cracking the cryptos.

Finally, a good money must always be available and not subject to being switched on and off by electrical power. Stated differently, what happens in a Bitcoin world if the grid goes down?