Fiat Money Cycle vs Commodity Money Cycle vs Bartered Tokens
With fiat money, the government generates the money that it spends, and collects it back as taxes and/or has other processes to prevent inflation.
With commodity money, bankers generate the money and loan it into the economy. The government is funded by borrowing (selling bonds) or taxing.
Governments could also generate money tied to a commodity, but they choose not to.
With bartered tokens, organizations generate tokens to pay workers. The tokens can be redeemed by the organization for specific items. The workers can trade the tokens with other people, who are allowed to redeem the tokens for their specified value.