but there are so many things that have this 'irreversible' property in the real world. Identities. Secrets. Exploits. Once (hacked) you cant get the genie back in the bottle. I feel this irreversibility is what is of real value in an information economy.

Cryptocurrency is similar. Its 'real', unlike USD/EUR/etc, which are insured. At best its a record in a centralized db.

Please rethink your position on disaster :-) If 2017 is anything to go by, the world is more resilient to disaster than believed.