I see parallels to the 1810s in America where an explosion of banks needed virtually nothing to get chartered and issue unlimited amounts of their own currency. That went great, until it didn't.
Bitcoin and other crypto-coins are also created without the gold or silver backing of course... they just aren't issued in quite the same way.
And maybe filecoin is an exception - most ICOs seem a little scammy at best, with value based purely on speculation and scarcity.
The ability to "shape shift" your declining currency to better ones assumes you can out-speculate the market in knowing when to exit, and which coins to buy.
Libertarians should be thrilled. Fractional Reserve Banking represents millions of individual decisions around the world to lend money, which does not require the Federal Government. Anarcho-Capitalists should be pressing for zero regulation and allowing anyone and their mom to issue any amount of credit money.
In the age of technology, this doesn't sound as scary as it would have been in the past, when you had to keep the relative credit of 100000 currencies in your head. For example, the Trustlines network, or Interledger protocol, or Lightning network, will allow people to transact using Trustlines between each other. VISA and other financial merchants may use Trustlines as well.
Think about VISA issuing banks, etc. They give you a credit card and they don't know how much you're going to spend on a given day. That credit line is yours. That card is not fiat so the stores don't have to accept it. But now, many do, because they believe the VISA system and the issuing bank will make good on the purchase and exchange their "VISA currency" for money. Same with PayPal, WeChat, AliPay, Venmo, etc. They all have fiat reserves.
I personally think regulation is a welcome response to the Free Banking Era and wildcat money, but either way, many communities would benefit from issuing their own currency: Detroit, Greece, etc. Bristol Dollars have Pound reserves and Bristol issues its own currency.
I think that it would be really cool if communities could issue their own currencies. Read this: https://qbix.com/blog/
The linked blog mentions Detroit, but doesn't go into much detail.
Depends on your definition of "fake"? Anyone can ICO a new "real" crypto coin, but what gives those coins value beyond speculation?
If I make "klipt-coin" (which would cost me nothing but a little time) will you buy it just because it uses cryptography? If so, I have a crypto-bridge to sell you.
Back then, solely founding a bank to 'jump on the bandwagon' earlier than others was seen as something much much more important than to have that bank functioning properly. Now, none of those first wave banks remain prominent. Out of roughly 2000, only 20 function today.