Not sure about this one
I think kilowatt hours of energy are a better thing on which to base a currency
the problem I have with that concept is the kilowatts (or barrels of oil for that matter), are used up when used. Ok, not technically, due to the law od conservation of matter, but they are changed into an unrecoverable form, effectively used up.
Gold, when used as currency simply changes hands, and is never used up.
As far as going back on the gold standard? Fine by me. But you sure wouldn't like what it would do to the numbers on your paycheck, at first.
One way they could do it is simply print new bills, in the amount of gold we have, and then figure an exchange rate for the dollars in private hands currently. Oh, people will scream, and do it loud, and often, especially if the exchange rate comes out to be something like 10 or 100 for one. But by the time it is done, all the money will be worth a fixed amount.
I can remember when gold was worth $125 dollars an ounce. Period. That was the value of gold, set by law. And so that was the value of the dollar. Nixon's administration took us off the gold standard (along with a lot of other nice things they did for us), and we have been selling our dollars on the world market ever since. Well, guess what, right now, the rest of the world doesn't want our dollars. And because the value is not fixed, the value of the dollar is only what someone who wants them is willing to pay.
Tere was also a time, within the past century, when ordinary citizens were forbidden by law from owning gold (other than as jewelry or registered coin collectors). This was during the FDR administration.
As noted, the Federal Reserve is a private organization. The US mint(s) print the money, then they
give it to the Federal Reserve, who then
loans it to our Federal Government! You have to wonder if that is what our Founding Fathers felt was the right thing for our nation.