From where I am sitting, money is merely "a temporary store of value" that makes it possible for me to trade the apples from my trees when they are ready for someone's help painting my house... *when I need my house painted."
For that matter, money can be gold, cowrie shells, walnuts or something else... as long as a sufficient group of people agree that it's the basis for trading. When I was a kid, we lived in Kenya for a while, where some tribal trade was still done in cowries, and in Murano glass "trade beads." That was also "money," at least to those doing the trading.
I used to be far more "obsessed" with money-- as a "thing;" as a "number" when I was in my 20's and somewhat 30's. Now-- at 57-- there's not much I "need" nor really much I feel compelled to "prove" to anyone.