From Barter to Bitcoin

The History and Future of Money

As a family office investor with a background in software engineering, I've always been fascinated by the interplay of technology and finance. This curiosity led me to study the history of money, tracing its evolution from the earliest forms of barter to the cutting-edge world of cryptocurrencies.

The journey is a testament to human ingenuity, a relentless pursuit of more efficient and reliable means of exchange. Yet, it's also a story of power dynamics, economic upheavals, and the constant search for stability in an ever-changing world.

Wealth is the ‘battery’ that stores our energy across time. Money is the short term movement of that energy. Over time as our technology evolved our money increased efficiency and gained valuable attributes.

In the earliest societies, trade was often conducted through bartering, a direct exchange of goods and services. While functional, this system was riddled with inefficiencies. The 'double coincidence of wants' – where both parties needed to desire w…