"I don't believe we shall ever have a good money again before we take the thing out of the hands of government, that is, we can't take it violently out of the hands of government, all we can do is by some sly roundabout way introduce something that they can't stop." - F.A. Hayek 1984
Thing is, fiat currency is exactly as worthless as gold or Bitcoin or pebbles. It’s just a unit of measurement so of course it has no tangible value. There’s no going back to barter because it is so impractical that any attempt to make it work will be the first step to inventing currency.