I think money was always based on "faith" but that faith isn't on the currency it's always been on the government backed by the military. money we have today is 100x more convenient to use and difficult for criminals to duplicate (ig not usa paper notes tho), you can't really just put more money on your screen nowadays unless youre some crazy advanced hacker and in that case you would probably get more money doing cyber security. in a sense money is more based on faith which is based on systems that have made it more legitimate. money has never meant to represent "time and effort" that's like a marxian way to look at it. it's always represented value provided.
originally currency was created by governments giving soldiers a way to get things they needed/wanted from society as a way to pay back for their service
before that was bartering
faith-based in a sense that if we don't use it we can't participate in society
time and effort put in by a soldier those days was worth more than time and effort put in by a farmer.
they provided different value
so currency isn't "time and effort"
it's one of the building blocks of capitalism. give more money to value rather than effort.