Actually its not a valid comparison. We cannot live without air, water and an energy source like that from our local star, but we could live without money.

History shows we used to trade things without money, but this wasn't too practical until "precious things" (rare) came around, then we could trade more easily. The concept of money due to practicality, originally it was the precious metals themselves, but then goverments happened...

The older cases of inflation were very physical. Romans when troubled by budgetary reasons (the usual) started reducing the amount of gold of each Dinar which prompted their hyperinflation later and an emperor even resigned (for the first time in their history).

But then paper "representing" those metals started being used, and the stage was set for the fractional reserve scam.

Bitcoin undoes this later part, in fact bitcoin doesn't even pretend to represent any arbitrary amount of metal, its price is freely decided by the market by its usefulness alone, so you could say its price is "honest" since you don't have to trust any third party to fulfill a promise of value. So while its not pegged to anything, it also is unique and limited. On top of that its electronic, so even easier to trade with.