General Discussion

ignoring crypto for a minute...
The value of a dollar is going down by about 8% a year. That is what causes inflation, and why prices always go up, and don't go back down after "inflation" is allegedly "lower".
The Fed prints money out of thin air. This devalues the dollar. So, money in a savings account loses value over time, if you are not making more than 8% in interest.
Reagan started the "deficits don't matter" claim, and they have been printing money out of thin air ever since. The US deficits keep growing, now at a rate of a trillion every 3 months, and they are at just below 36 trillion now. That is a stack of dollar bills high enough to reach 1/4 the way to Venus.
W Bush spent trillions for his wars. When the banks destroyed the world economy in 2008-10, they bailed out the banks by printing money. Trump added 8 1/2 trillion in his 4 years (part of that was covid stimulus), and lowered taxes for the rich and corporations so that taxes can never come close to paying government expenses ever again.

As for real paper currency, it is increasingly used less often. Most people pay with debit or credit cards. If I put $20 in my wallet, I may never get around to using it for months. Your paycheck is transferred to your bank account as a digital signal. Yes, if the power goes out, all that is gone.
In the coming years, money will be converted into a CBDC (central bank digital currency), which is a Federal Reserve version of crypto, a digital dollar.