Earth, Fire, Air, Water . . . and Money?

The four elements are global. Money is national, or, in the case of the euro, multinational. But why? Shouldn't something as basic as a medium of exchange be worldwide?

That heretical thought is prompted by the sputtering of a French official mentioned in this WSJ column. How dare Facebook propose to create a cryptocurrency, the Libra, that could ignore national controls and become as commonplace as air or water?

Realistically, I can't imagine national governments allowing anything like Libra. Still, it's likely that future generations will be highly amused by our provincialism.