In this blog post, we discuss the history of money, and how it has envolved over time - tl:dr style!

History of Money⌗

  1. Money has three functions: a store of value, a medium of exchange, and a unit of account.
  2. Throughout history, many different things have been used as money, including seashells, salt, and gold. The choice of money was based on its scarcity, durability, portability, and divisibility.
  3. The introduction of paper money made transactions easier, but it was still tied to gold until the 1970s when the US dollar became a fiat currency.
  4. Fiat currency is not backed by a physical commodity like gold but is instead based on the trust and stability of the government issuing it.
  5. Digital currencies like Bitcoin have the potential to be a better form of money than both physical and fiat currencies because they are borderless, frictionless, and not subject to the whims of government or central banks.
  6. Bitcoin has a finite supply, making it a scarce asset, and its transactions are decentralized and transparent, making it more secure and trustworthy than traditional currencies.

Many Bitcoiners feel that bitcoin will become a global reserve currency, replacing the US dollar, and encourage everyone to own at least a small amount of bitcoin as a way to participate in the future of money.

Now since bitcoin has these money properties and unique attributes, Bitcoin’s blockchain can be considered a universal ledger. Here’s why:

  1. The blockchain, the underlying technology behind Bitcoin, is essentially a universal ledger that can record any type of transaction, not just financial ones.
  2. Previous ledgers such as objective and subjective ones are centralized in nature.
  3. This universal ledger has the potential to transform the way we store and exchange all kinds of valuable assets, from property deeds and patents to medical records and identity documents.

The use of blockchain technology for these purposes could create a more transparent and efficient system for recording and transferring valuable assets, with the potential to reduce fraud, corruption, and bureaucracy. We encourage entrepreneurs and innovators to explore the potential of this technology and to create new businesses and services that leverage the capabilities of Bitcoin’s blockchain to improve various aspects of our society.

Overall, it’s argued that money has always been an evolving concept, and digital currencies like bitcoin have the potential to be the next major evolution in how we exchange value.

This blog post is a summary of the excellent presentation given by Wences Cesares.1

  1. Source link ↩︎