From Barter to Bitcoin
We all rely on money to pay for the things we need and want. But what is money, and how did it evolve? A basic definition is “the official currency, coins, and paper notes issued by a government.” People know the value of the money they use—it appears right on the coins and paper notes. And people have confidence that the money will hold its value because their government backs it as its legal tender.
But it wasn’t always like that. Thousands of years ago, the concept of money barely existed. Before money became widely accepted as a form of payment, how did people buy the things they needed?
