Think about a simple gold coin. Think about the cost that goes into producing that coin. Think about the manpower and special mining equipment and the land and the energy inputs and material inputs that are necessary to extract just the gold ore from the earth. Think about how much money that all costs. Then the ore has to be transported to some refinery. Transportation energy and manpower and equipment are more costs. The refinery runs on land, energy, manpower, and materials so that's more costs. Once the gold is refined, it still has to be coined. The coining process requires land, equipment, energy, and manpower so, again, that's more costs. Then the coins have to be sold and transported to middlemen and gold retailers. More transportation costs. The middlemen, the coiners, the refiners, and the miners aren't doing this for no profit either, so there's profit margins baked into all of these costs. Gold is valuable too, so the refinery, coinery, transports, and resellers all have security costs. All of that cost gets averaged out and baked into the selling price of 1 Troy ounce of gold. So, right now, it costs roughly $4,000 USD to do all of that and produce a gold coin. That valuation is not by decree. That valuation is simple accounting for costs associated with the process that is the business model. Now compare that gold coin worth $4,000 and compare it to a stack of 40 $100 bills which we are told is equal in value to that gold coin. Why is that stack of paper as valuable as that gold coin? It's much cheaper to print the paper money than it is to create gold coins, right? That makes paper money "easy" money and gold "hard" money. Typically the best money is the hardest money. People, over time, figure this out. The people who stick to easy money become victims of debasement as the money they use will get printed. Naturally, people are going to be drawn to harder money so then why would we use money that is legislated by some supposed authority by decree (fiat)? The decree is necessary because without it, the people would use the hardest money. The people making the decree do not want the people to use the hardest money. The people making the decree want the people to use a form of easy money over which the people making the decree have monopolistic power and control.