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I'd disagree with the last bit - the next best alternative could be Bitcoin, ETH, gold, Euro, e-wallet money, stocks, bonds, or even debt. You can trade dollars for an imaginary dollar-backed value in PayPal's database. You can use something like HelloGold if you prefer something gold-backed instead.

You're probably right - that could be money's key attribute. So what happens when someone else does it better?

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That's still money, it's just different currencies. Money (or currency) is something that is widely accepted to have value not from its inherent properties but because it is accepted everywhere in a transaction. If something is difficult to exchange quickly with most exchange partners (e.g. taking days to transfer stocks from you to a gas station) then it's either not a currency or its a bad currency. Bitcoin and other cryptocoins are "sort-of-currencies" because you can't practically use bitcoin and stop using USD. This is why the SEC is starting to treat crypto like a security.

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