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