The idea that “gold is valuable” is just as hand-wavy, but requires us to relinquish control of the supply to whomever happened to find themselves sitting on to

The idea that “gold is valuable” is just as hand-wavy, but requires us to relinquish control of the supply to whomever happened to find themselves sitting on top of a gold mine. Perhaps fiat isn’t your ideal, but it’s almost certainly better than pegging to a rare earth metal.