I think money not only represents the value of stuff, it also represents human trust in fundamental ways. We use money as a go between to trust and work with each other. Problem is, that money gives us very little in knowledge/understanding of who we are transacting with. We can give another person/company our produced capital and don't necessarily know what it is used for. It gets horded and used to concentrate power into the hands of a few.

The "original" use or base monetary system is, supposedly people found it was easier to transact with each other using money as a go between instead of working and cooperating to meet the communities needs. It is possible to cooperate instead of compete. Cooperation takes work, trust, ways to work out conflicts and communicate with all individuals in a group/community. Of course, communities like this exist and have existed through history. Our currency dominated world is not one of them. Our currency dominated world creates a hierarchical human system where money is power and any one can always get more (or less) than the next. It's not commensurate with effort, output, or merit. Individuals are kept in the dark and just keep going for that next paycheck, retirement account, healthcare, whatever without asking too many questions. Believing or accepting a status quo of information, ideas don't need to be entertained that may conflict with a taught worldview.

It is possible for people to work together as communities, tribes, cities without the use of money.

I think it is a fallacy to say that an individual's primary drive will always be self interest, that only self interest is human nature. It doesn't have to be. People can ultimately choose differently.

Money is a (poor) system of human trust.