Money has evolved and adapted over the centuries, as many traders and merchants attempted to solve the problem of how to exchange goods easily. In the earliest days of trade, income was bartered or traded with commodities. Coins were invented in the 7th century BC, allowing people who didn’t know each other to exchange currency in a safe way. The modern coinage system began around 700 BC when Athens started to mint coins that were used as a form of payment across their empire.
Archeologists have unearthed evidence that people used shells as money in Mesopotamia — now part of Iraq, Iran, and Syria — some 8,000 years ago. That’s around the same time that some of the earliest known writing was etched on clay tablets by merchants hoping to trade different goods — and humans around the world have been bartering ever since. The practice of swapping goods and services for payment in exchange was used even by ancient Romans, who would deposit their gold coins into an equivalent value of coins with emperor Augustus’ face on them. Coins could be melted down into pure gold bars if they were misplaced, or stolen from invaders or robbers.
Money as we know it today did not begin until after the evolution of our species. It was only when humans began to exchange goods with one another that they had to find a medium of exchange to make these transactions possible. The history of currency is therefore a fascinating story.
Currency is simply a medium of exchange with an accepted value to conduct transactions. Money is any object or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a particular country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, sometimes, a standard of deferred payment. Any kind of object or secure verifiable record that fulfills these functions can be considered money.
Fiat currency is a currency that a government has declared to be legal tender, with no intrinsic value and a value established by law. Historically, fiat money was created when a commodity was used as money. The use of feathers, sea salt, cowry shells, and large stones has been recorded. There are two main methods in which transactions are conducted: bartering and using currency. Bartering is done by trading a product or service for another product or service; this is the most natural method since it was the original method of exchange before money was introduced.
Revamping traditional forms of currency
While electronic payments have been around for decades, the cryptocurrency phenomenon is something new. Currency has gone through many transformations. Money as a form of bartering, gold coins, paper money, and even cryptocurrency have all been used in different capacities throughout history.
Cryptocurrency has many benefits over traditional forms of currency including anonymity, increased security and reduced currency volatility. All of these benefits come with a cost: if the system is compromised by hackers or cybercriminals then the entire economy can be negatively impacted by a single breach or exploit. Cryptocurrency has the potential to revolutionize the financial landscape. As a new medium of exchange, it allows people to move away from old-fashioned banking systems and instead use decentralized blockchains to keep track of transactions.
AMBCrypto has launched a global crypto converter that converts any cryptocurrency to fiat currency and vice versa with ease to give traders and crypto enthusiasts accurate price conversions with utmost convenience.
The global crypto converter is very fast as AMBCrypto is using highly scalable servers that are able to process any conversion within ⅛ of a second. A notable feature of this converter is that conversions like crypto to crypto and fiat to fiat are available which are features other converters in the space lack.