pedant alert...
"No, currency has intrinsic value because the government says it does."
Just to split hairs here (because I'm 99% sure you mean the same thing) you mean money rather than currency, which is a specific form of money.
The reason the money has value is because the government will only accept payment of it's taxes in that form.
The US goes a bit further, in that *any* transaction must be valued in dollars, and be potentially taxable (if you've gained them). So if you trade a chicken for a spanner, you have to agree a "fair" value for that in dollars (fair as in the IRS agrees).
The IRS views *any* crypto trade as requiring this, hence why it's very easy to make a net loss trading if you're in the US if you're not paying attention to when you losses and gains occur within a tax year.
Oh, and the US also requires you to use USD for any oil trade. Anywhere in the world. Hence why everyone has to hold USD reserves.
So much of the intrinsic value of the USD is that if you stop using it, then you might well end up ousted from your shiny gold palace and at the end of a rope.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
