![]() ![]() Graeber explained that when people exchanged goods in ancient times, what they were actually doing was a form of giving as a neighborly favor. Instead, he noted how money was actually a complex credit arrangement before the invention of coin or cash. In his book, Debt: The First 5,000 Years, anthropologist David Graeber dismantled economists’ idea of barter as the origin of money. Before Bitcoin began shaking up standard notions of money, a similar challenge had come from a scholar outside of the discipline of economics. This question reveals a prevailing myth that’s embedded in modern economics: that money emerged from markets where commodities were bartered. Unlike precious metals like gold, many argue that this new currency has no intrinsic value. Yet, critics continue to throw around the same old questions about Bitcoin’s value and what really backs it. Even mainstream media, which has regularly slammed Bitcoin in the past, seems to be catching up with a basic understanding of this technology and embracing its potential. Total VC investment into the Bitcoin infrastructure in 2014 ($335m) has exceeded the $250m invested in the similar phase with Internet startups in 1995. Even though consumer adoption has barely gotten off the ground, investments are pouring into this expanding ecosystem. Six years since the inception of Bitcoin, awareness of this stateless currency has grown exponentially. ![]() This article comes to us from returning contributor Nozomi Hayase.
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