I would hesitate to call it "money" as well, as apart from its use in place of money, it has no value. Even paper currency is, at bottom, worth the paper it's printed on.
Even paper currency is, at bottom, worth the paper it's printed on.
When Zimbabwe printed a $100,000,000,000,000 (one hundred trillion dollar bill) due to hyperinflation, the people used it for fire, because it wasn't useful for anything else.
So… no, paper money has been worthless many times.
And, now, those notes sell for over $100 each in uncirculated condition, simply because it's denominated in "dollars" and has the largest numerical denomination history. Had you bought one in 2001, when they were worth $5 apiece, that would have yielded you a CAGR of around 40%. Sometimes, I kind of want to kick myself for missing out on that train. :)
From the Bisq FAQ:
Security deposits are set to be a percentage of the trade amount—actual percent varies by BTC price volatility, but minimum is 0.006 BTC—but the percent can be adjusted by the offer maker to be as low as 15% or as high as 50%.
Both Bisq and Hodl Hodl are peer-to-peer. You set your own price to sell at, for example. I don't know about Hodl Hodl but Bisq runs over Tor to protect user's privacy.
I believe you can transact in amounts as low as 1 satoshi, or 1e-8 BTC, which would imply a minimum transaction amount of $0.19, assuming a value of $19k per BTC.
It's true that current circulation coins have very little value as metal scrap. The largest coin you're ever likely to encounter in circulation is the Kennedy half dollar. Since 1971, they are made of a copper core with a copper/nickel cladding layer, just like current dimes and quarters are. It's current melt value is approximately $0.09.
But, when yo speak about "true value," consider that anything you're trying to attach a dollar value to, you're measuring its value in terms of dollars. A dollar today really is little more than a bit that's set in a computer somewhere. Why do we give that any value at all?
The answer is that the USD, along with most, if not all, current world currencies, is essentially an "economy token." By that I mean the USD is literally just a way to keep score, i.e. to tell how much you're winning at the game of capitalism.
This seems like neither a good thing nor a bad thing. It just is what it is.
Interestingly, according to https://sdbullion.com/blog/how-much-silver-gold-is-there there are about 6e9 ozt gold and 5e10 ozt silver above ground right now. At today's current spot prices of $1789.55 for gold per ozt and $22.78 per ozt, that works out to about 1.2e13 USD worth, which, if we made all money either out of or backed by gold and silver in a 1:1 ratio, would literally be all the money in the world.
When Zimbabwe printed a $100,000,000,000,000 (one hundred trillion dollar bill) due to hyperinflation, the people used it for fire, because it wasn't useful for anything else.
So… no, paper money has been worthless many times.