As energy has a usefulness and intrinsic value that even gold lacks. It could be traded anonymously like cash like batteries as dollars or as energy storage and quick and efficient transfers becomes smaller and more convenient. Im thinking specifically electrical energy with batteries and capacitors but even gas could be used.
It could be created by individuals with solar panels or bike mounted generators. It could be stored as potential energy in large amounts as heat or pressure and then converted back to electrical energy when needed. It could be networked for large transfers. There could even be large banks that hold energy as a business, but they would not be able to lend more than they hold. Private individual energy storage would be the most secure from government or other seizure obviously.
Wheres the flaw?
Ok so AAs could be coins in this system and car batteries could be bills.
If we get to a point where something the size of a couple AAs could pay for groceries for the week, we will have arrived, right?
It takes ONE MINUTE for a solar panel to charge a AA battery. That is a SINGLE solar panel. That solar panel costs about a hundred dollars or so in initial investment and lasts 20-30 years. We would need for AA's to be about a million times more energy dense to be viable as a storage medium. And that assumes that people would need energy as we currently do. If energy was currency, then everyone would be mining it. If everyone is mining something, and the technology for that mining gets better and better all the time (as these things do) how many people will need more?
Now were talking about a world where energy is abundant for the consumer. Energy is used for a lot of necessities and fun things. I think as it becomes more plentiful and cheaper, well be able to drive faster or power flying cars or do other things easier. It could still be currency but we could choose to spend our currency being warmer in the winter or cooler in the summer.
It's not a question of whether or not it can have intrinsic value. It can and does. The question is, can gathering and storage infrastructure and technology fall behind our requirements for it sufficiently that it can be traded in a meaningful way. We currently trade it at a 20 cents per kilowatt hour or so on average. That price will only go down as we leave behind the corporate chains that have hold on it.
Cold Fusion technology has existed for over two decades in an experimental (but usable) format. It has been suppressed by the PTB because to release it to the masses would destroy the corporate stranglehold on energy. That is not the only possible hidden energy tech, just the only one I can say for sure exists.
Cold Fusion allows for all of our current energy requirements to be met for a couple dollars worth of fuel a year. That includes us using it for "flying cars" and whatever else you want. If energy is that cheap, how can it be used as a currency unless we find a need for many orders of magnitude more energy per capita (everyone has their own personal wormhole generator for example).