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Writer's pictureFahad H

A short historical past of cash – From gold to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies


A short historical past of cash – let’s take into account the idea of cash as an abstraction of worth. Money is as previous as human civilisation and civilisation itself is reliant on possessing methods wherein to trade, account for, and switch worth. What as soon as began as barter commerce (buying and selling items for items) was changed utilizing standardized token cash. Gold and silver have been the primary universally accepted pure decisions for cash. Actually, they match the invoice so nicely that they have been the first type of cash for hundreds of years throughout the globe and have been instilled in human tradition… I wager once I say “gold” you instinctively consider worth or wealth. After this got here paper cash – a extra user-friendly option to carry and transfer round worth in comparison with treasured metals. China was the primary to undertake it within the seventh century. The first European banknotes weren’t issued till the 17th century. It took folks a number of centuries to just accept the brand new paradigm on the time and shift from gold and silver cash to banknotes backed by these identical treasured metals because the broadly used type of cash. This led to the start of ‘the gold commonplace’. The banknotes themselves did not maintain any intrinsic worth like gold and silver cash do. Instead, paper cash was backed by treasured metals (like gold and silver) saved in a treasury vault someplace. This was the case till 1944. At the tip of World War II, one more associated system was launched, the “gold exchange standard”, beneath the Bretton Woods settlement. This meant that many nations fastened their nationwide currencies’ trade charges to the US greenback which was in flip convertible to gold at a hard and fast price. Not solely that, however this convertibility was now not out there to people or firms, solely to central banks. However, the Bretton Woods system led to 1971, when the US greenback convertibility to gold was terminated. So lengthy “the gold standard” and commodity-linked cash. Paper cash is now not backed by gold or the rest tangible however simply religion! Welcome to the world of fiat currencies! So how does paper maintain any worth if it is not backed by something? Well, that is the place ideas like authorized tender are available. The fiat system, which we nonetheless use as we speak, has governments assign worth to a foreign money, declaring it a authorized tender. This means a authorities decides whether or not a medium of fee might be recognised for monetary transactions, commerce settlement or commerce in a rustic or jurisdiction. Throughout all these phases we had an concept of worth in our thoughts however it has developed hand in hand with our civilisation and know-how. From one thing you’ll be able to contact and truly use, to one thing you’ll be able to contact however can’t use apart from commerce, to simply an summary concept.

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