For a long time there was only precious metals, there was no legal tender printed on paper.
As the gold standard faded and the credit shit became dominant there was no blockchain.
Now we have the gold standard, cash, credit, and the blockchain as value stores.
My bet is on the gold standard again, with the blockchain replacing cash and credit.
I really like the idea of Defi, and I am not alone. Today I have dozens of wallets sitting around, and I can send you the link to some for you to see how much the asset in that wallet worth...
This is a brand new concept, replacing "credit" with "evidence" that at the time you looked the spending power was there.
Of course there are tons of problems with that, no doubt. But none of the problems I see are insurmountable.