Yes, but there is a big difference between a fiat currency and a debt based currency.
A fiat currency does not require it to be debt based, but you cannot really have a debt based currency with it being a fiat currency.

Just because government regulates it does not make it all that bad or a pyramid scheme. The fact that it is "debt based" is what makes it a pyramid scheme.

The US Treasury BORROWS from the Federal Reserve, a for profit, private corporation. Each dollar borrowed, is then a debt in anyone's hand who holds it. If it were just a fiat currency, then it would actually have value, but something that represents "debt" cannot, at the same time, have "value", unless you value debt, and the only people who value debt are the bankers and debtor institutions built up around them. Debt=Death
Mortgage=Mortuary