Why do we use money? How did we get to the point where billions of US dollars can be created by the Federal Reserve with the click of a button for bills that are never printed and have no relation to the finite assets those dollars used to be pegged against? Are cryptocurrencies and the digital blockchain the next evolution of worldwide finance?The answer - according to Omid Malekan - is trust, and on today's episode of Ask Altucher, he and James take this conversation back thousands of years to the beginning of 'commodity money' and walk through its evolution to the present day.Omid has been studying the relationship between trust and money for decades, working as a stockbroker, lead cryptocurrency consultant for Citi Group, professor at Columbia Business School, and author of  several books, including Re-Architecting Trust: the Curse of History and the Crypto Cure for Money, Markets and Platforms as well as The Story of the Blockchain: A Beginner’s Guide to the Technology That Nobody Understands.If you ever wanted to understand how and why the worldwide financial system operates, Omid explains it all in explicit yet accessible detail. Even seasoned financial professionals will take new nuggets of information away from this conversation.------------What to write and publish a book in 30 days? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/writing to join James' writing intensive!What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book Skip the Line is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltucher.com/podcast.------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe  to “The James Altucher Show” wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsStitcheriHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on Social Media:YouTubeTwitterFacebook