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A Brief History of Money

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Before we take understand bitcoin, let us take a quick look at the history of money...

Money is an asset that we use to purchase goods and services in an economy. It is a language we use to express value and create social bonds.

It works as a store of value and a medium of exchange.
Money is a measurement for value. It represents the value/cost of goods and services.

Money is one of the oldest technology that humanity has. It preceeds writing. One of the oldest samples of writing we have, is spreadsheets. Money pre-existed that writing. 

In the history of money, we went from barter exchange, to precious metals, plastic money, and now network money. 

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Barter

Dawn of civilization: Glass used as money.

9000 BC: Livestock and crops were exchanged for useful items.

2279 BC: Units of weight (of barley and gold) used as money.

1300 BC: Shells used as money in Africa.

1100 BC: First standardized coins in China.

687 BC: First gold coin in the Iron Age kingdom of Lydia (Now Turkey).

300 BC: Silver coins (Denarius) minted by Romans.

 

Paper Money

 

 

118 BC: Leather banknotes in China.

700 - 1000 AD: First paper money used during the Tang Dynasty in China.

1100 AD: First paper money issued by a government during the Song Dynasty in China.

1290 AD: Explorer Marco Polo writes about Chinese paper money in his book.

1661 AD: First European paper banknotes printed in Sweden.

 

Gold Standard

 

 

1800 AD: Money was backed by precious metals like gold.

1844 AD: Bank of England notes fully backed by gold.

1879 AD: Gold becomes official standard of value in the US.

1933 AD: Gold standard phased out as the US pumps money to recover from the Great Depression.

 

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Credit Cards

 

 

1946 AD: First bank cards introduced.

1958 AD: American Express launched.

1970 AD: Magnetic strip allows information to be decoded.

 

Electronic Money

 

 

1990 AD: Chip cards introduced. Allows more verification data storage.

1994 AD: Online shopping takes off.

1997 AD: Early stages of mobile banking and mobile payments.

1998 AD: PayPal founded. Allowed online payments and transfers for businesses.

 

Cryptocurrencies

 

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2008 AD: An unknown programmer by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto releases the bitcoin whitepaper.  The first decentralized cryptocurrency is created.

The rest of this course will teach you everything you need to know about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.