The scarcity is sufficient. Any scarce resource can be traded for monetary value. The actual value is determined by agents accepting the resource as payment for productive services, which again is determined by the impression that the resource can be traded. It's a circular thing.
The BitCoin project is built on a quite thorough understanding of how money actually works, which is not through component value or scarcity or magic or anything. It's through controlled scarcity and absolutely nothing else. BitCoins are money in the way that gold, oil, stock or Pokemon cards are money, with the added benefit of perfect divisibility and tightly defined scarcity.
Also, BitCoins are not in any way protected from inflation. Nothing could ever possibly be protected from inflation. It's just a thing that you can buy and sell if you want, and I'm curious as to how you would attempt to ban that.