Too Long; Didn't Read
<strong>Money is a technology</strong> we invented out of necessity. As <a href="https://medium.com/@xapo" data-anchor-type="2" data-user-id="75cfb7e7d720" data-action-value="75cfb7e7d720" data-action="show-user-card" data-action-type="hover" target="_blank">Xapo</a> CEO <a href="https://medium.com/@wences" data-anchor-type="2" data-user-id="7096ccd0251b" data-action-value="7096ccd0251b" data-action="show-user-card" data-action-type="hover" target="_blank">Wences Casares</a> describes in his discussion on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKkfhi8Eaiw" target="_blank">“Bitcoin is better than gold”</a>, <strong>barter never actually existed</strong>. Our ancestors did not find a way to trade fish for clothes or equate medicinal knowledge to bread, but instead kept track of debts to one another and tried to balance things fairly. We would remember who gave us meat from the buffalo hunt, who supplied us with fire wood, and who helped us when we were sick. It was<strong> impossible to equate the value</strong> of some of these things, so we simply remembered and tried to be honest and fair about our indebtedness to one another. Some people were never repaid and others fought over what had actually occurred. <strong>We kept track of it all in our heads.</strong>