In practice the gov't has to pretend like the money is real in order to prevent chaos. In fact both gov't and citizens have to pretend "properly" for it to work

In practice the gov't has to pretend like the money is real in order to prevent chaos. In fact both gov't and citizens have to pretend "properly" for it to work. It's a mutual agreement about how to represent the value of commerce. Laws are the same way: members of civilization have to mutually agree on how to create and follow the laws for them to "work". Civilization is the Mother of All Handshakes. If a large enough percentage of the population disagrees with the "agreements", anarchy happens. Modern technology and civilization are both inherently driven by standards: both written and de-facto.