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Evolution of money

In the olden days, transactions was not as easy and as seamless as it is today. What has come to be known as money today has evolved considerably from the age of barter trade to cowries to gold and its receipt.

During the time of the early men, goods/services was exchanged for other goods /services which exchange value was determined purely by visual and sentimental judgments. With time, this pattern of trade began to face setbacks and problems… which includes:

• The lack of common measure value
• The difficulty in storage of goods
• The lack of double coincidence of wants (The double coincidence of want refers to the fact that two parties must each have something to offer that the other party wants and vice versa.)

This led to people seeking a standard unit for valuation which led to using cowries and then precious metals such as gold and silver. But there was still problem of transportation and fear of theft as this metals was heavy and difficult to transport.

Then came some smart set of people who took gold from business merchants issue them a receipt which was backed by the gold deposited by the merchants and this could be given to other traders in place of goods and the trader who is given the receipt goes to the goldsmith to claim the said gold.

But there came a time when there was no longer enough gold to back up the issued receipt and receipt on ground became more than available Gold this is what led to the birth of what we all came to know as paper money.

Money since the advent of paper money (note), has evolved through different stages from credit cards, to bank wire and finally cryptocurrency (the core and most used product of the blockchain technology)

Note!

Money in and of itself has no actual value it can be a shell, a metal coin or a piece of paper and now even a series of code. Its value is symbolic; it conveys the importance that people place on it.

Money derives its value by virtue of its functions; as a medium of exchange, a unit of measurement, and a storehouse for wealth. The most important factor or feature of money is its General Acceptability, Divisibility and as a Store of value. Any object or thing that is generally accepted by majority, divisible and used to calculate value of other things can be considered as money.

And codes are not left out as well, as cryptocurrency are simply codes that are generally accepted, divisible and can be used as a store of value.