If the market is a distributed algorithm, then money is a representation of some of its free variables. Both are made up in the sense that the algorithm itself

If the market is a distributed algorithm, then money is a representation of some of its free variables. Both are made up in the sense that the algorithm itself can be modified by regulation or social convention. There's even a field of economics dedicated to finding out how to engineer such an algorithm (a mechanism) to satisfy a given objective. But if the algorithm is more or less stable, then it makes more sense to study it rather than just parts of its state. That's the difference.