Hackermoon... > 13.7 billion years ago, the Big Bang brought the universe into > existence. 3.8 billion years ago, life first appeared on our planet. > 1.9 million years ago, Earth witnessed a hominid species, Home > erectus, walking upright for the first time. > > And, 7,000 years ago, money was invented. > > But first, people bartered. > > Not everyone had everything. We always had something in surplus, and > we always needed something that the other person had. As the common > sense would have said, we started exchanging our surplus assets for > what we needed. > > Imagine I had extra apples and you had extra oranges, we could simply > exchange fruits with one another. > > What if I had a surplus of apples, and didn’t want your oranges, but > I’d love to have some strawberries. > > You would go and find someone who can give you strawberries in > exchange for your oranges. Luckily you find your friend, Joe, to > barter with you. > > Then, you’d bring me those strawberries, and I’d give you some apples. > > Joe, you and I are all happy. >
(Did I mention the lovely illustrations?) > But what if Joe had a surplus of bananas, but he didn’t want your > oranges either? That would be a problem. > > The smart among us started asking a profound question, “Can there be > something that everyone wants?” > > Then, there was commodity money. > > There were a few things that almost everyone used, like salt, seeds, > sheep, and cows. They became the commodity money. If we had any of > these, we could use them to get whatever we wanted.... In full at hACKERMOON: https://hackernoon.com/wtf-is-money-2a5d78072128