Not necessarily. Back when they used gold as coins the concept of what it is worth might be abstracted, but the gold itself isn't. That's why the joule is even better. What's a joule worth? It's worth one joule of work. Someone with a billion gigajoules will be demonstrably more wealthy than someone with a few thousand megajoules.

In fact, the removal of any abstraction creates a clearer metric of value. Not only that, it could be incredibly environmentally friendly and a mechanism for growth at the same time.

That's not to say some sort of crypto triple ledgering wouldn't solidify its tradability, although trading will likely be predominantly localised so this won't be such a big issue.

Also consider that energy can be used as a very direct measure for food production, lighting, heating and cooling, communications and manufacture.

Thank you for your contribution too. It's helped me think about it further than I might have otherwise.

All the best

Rob