The problem with basing a money on something that has value, is that changes in perception of the value of the thing, result in changes in prices across the economy.<p>Say gold is the currency base.  Now we discover Alzheimer&#x27;s can be cured with a medicine that requires a lot of gold in the processing, and the price of gold skyrockets.  That causes the price of everything else (priced in gold) to plummet.<p>However, I think a compelling case can be made that the amount of hashpower being used to secure Bitcoin is overkill for the measly 3tps that the network is currently capable of.  If the same hashpower was used to secure 100X more transactions, it wouldn&#x27;t seem like such a waste of resources.