it's not money, it's a semi-private database of title transfer

you don't go to the court registry to change property ownership of stuff in your hands when you get in return for passing it to someone, something that you want, such as a claim to other property

if you had to register every change of ownership on this registry it would be extremely bulky and complex

bitcoin is like a small set of correspondent banks in a banking network

it's still a lot cheaper than trying to run a clearinghouse based on the speed of moving gold bars, and because of the cryptography, gains the benefit of being hard to corner

just go search for "Hunt Brothers Silver" to learn about an example of why bitcoin is hard to corner