Fiat currency is as real as the law (and all the baggage and corruption that entails).
Crypto is “Trust me, bro! I keep a spreadsheet in the cloud!”
We’ll all be using bottle caps soon enough.
Yes, even though “as real as the law” is a pretty complicated issue.
Actual money is real in the sense that it’s what people use to pay taxes, and if you don’t pay taxes the government has the right and the power to put you in prison. It’s also what the government is willing to offer people to do things like serve in the military, build highways, etc. That means there’s a vast and stable supply and demand for it.
Cryptocurrency is “real” in the sense that sometimes it’s the only way to pay a ransomware ransom. But, the people receiving that ransom are almost certainly going to change it into real money, because they’re probably not paying off ransomware ransoms, and so they don’t really have any use for cryptocurrency.
