What does money represent?

Before money, there was barter.  I provide something for you, and you provide something for me.  Then, we introduce this idea of money.

Instead of giving someone something for something, you instead give them something, for a promise in return.  The value of the promise is represented by the amount of money given, but it's not a promise that will be redeemed necessarily by the person giving the money, it can be redeemed by anybody.  The person who made the promise now must redeem a promise to someone else or society will force repercussion (bankruptcy).  But the person redeeming that promise must use money to do so.

That promise, once redeemed, is then owned by the person who redeemed it.  And this continues, until such time as, ... well ... when?

At some point in time, the original promise may be paid back.  If everyone paid back all of their promises, then the total amount of money supply in the system will be zero.  Therefore, the balance of the total amount of money in circulation represents all the promises made by everyone, given the analogy above.

The problem with the fiat monetary representation of this game is that banks are the ones who initially 'own' these promises, and ask that you (and all of society) give more back in return in the form of interest, to them.  Anyone who has a lot of money and wants to loan it to someone else and charge interest can also do this.  But, the total amount of money in the system is not sufficient to pay this all back, requiring someone to borrow more, from the bank, and it continues.  Hence, inflation.

What does the registry think about the value of a promise?