On the Social Function of Money: Proposing the ``Currency-like'' as a Medium-Independent Shared Reference Frame

Money is commonly explained through three functions: medium of exchange, unit of account, and store of value. This paper argues that these functions are better understood as descriptions of outcomes stabilized under particular institutional conditions of money, rather than as money's social role itself. We identify that existing monetary theory often conflates these functions with money's underlying social role, leading institutional constraints of monetary systems to be interpreted as inherent limits of social coordination. Using open source software (OSS) communities as a counterexample, we show that impersonal social coordination---reducing friction between actions and lowering participation costs---can be sustained without fulfilling the three monetary functions. Based on this observation, we define the ``currency-like'' as a shared reference frame that enables such coordination without relying on exchangeability, measurement, or value storage. By separating monetary functions from social coordination, this paper offers a conceptual framework that allows the benefits and social consequences of monetary systems to be examined independently