Common elements of fiat currencies-
-Issued and decreed as legal tender by a central governing body
-Not backed by, or in any way tied to a physical commodity, such as gold, silver, oil, etc.
-Value is extrinsic
-Only has value because the governing body, and the populace use it as exchange, and assign an arbitrary value to the currency
-Generally, no limit is established on how much currency can be created
Other fun facts:
-The U.S. Dollar has lost 97% of its value since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913; much of this devaluation took place after the U.S. was officially and completely taken off the gold standard in 1971
-Currently, there are no major currencies around the world that are not fiat currencies, with the exception of cryptocurrencies
-Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, do not fit the description of a fiat currency. They are not issued by a central government. They also often (but not always) have limits on the rate of money creation, the total amount currency that can be created, or both. However, they do lack intrinsic value, and are in no way tied to a physical commodity (with a few exceptions).
-Fiat currencies have always failed in the past.
-The U.S. Dollar has only officially been a fiat currency for roughly 46 years.
I am not necessarily advocating for a commodity backed currency, as I do not believe we can trust a government to be honest about printing only as much money as the amount of silver or gold they own. However, the current system clearly is not sustainable.