The currency in your wallet is worthless, just a piece of paper that you can use to wipe your ass?

Gold is just a shiny piece of rock.

It's valuable because people believe it is valuable.

Same for currency. It's valuable because everyone thinks it's valuable. (for that matter- bitcoin, crypto, stocks, etc etc)

Reminds me of a quote from Game of Thrones:- “power lies where we think it lies.”

“In a room sit three great men, a king, a priest, and a rich man with his gold. Between them stands a sellsword, a little man of common birth and no great mind. Each of the great ones bids him slay the other two. ‘Do it,’ says the king, ‘for I am your lawful ruler.’ ‘Do it,’ says the priest, ‘for I command you in the names of the gods.’ ‘Do it,’ says the rich man, ‘and all this gold shall be yours.’ So tell me – who lives and who dies?” Varys then poses the true riddle, and one of the main themes of the series: If power lies with the men who carry swords, why do we pretend that kings hold the power? Power, he argues, is ephemeral, a shadow – “power lies where we think it lies.”