It's still an elaborate hoax. *A useful one and I'm a part of it
   and participate in it. *It's not going away and people will
   continue talking about it 'as if' it's a real thing. It's useful
   because bartering doesn't work on large scales. It's practical.
   Still ultimately fictional though. *It's an elaborate game, much
   as relationships are often gamified. *Games are fictions. *Being
   fiction doesn't make it a bad thing. *it just means it's as true
   as we make it as a society.