| From the Desk of Don Yocham: It's hard to fathom, but archaeologists have pegged the first signs of trade between groups as appearing roughly 40,000 years ago.
40,000 years.
It's the kind of time scale that boggles the mind.
In the beginning, trade meant bartering: Groups would come together to trade hunting tools for seeds, or animal pelts for food. In other words, one useful object for another.
Money came along a good while later, with most historians agreeing it came onto the scene about 5,000 years ago.
That was a huge milestone in the evolution of human societies, as it indicated a mental shift that shows us the first people to use money had begun to grasp the concept that trade did not have to involve objects that were immediately useful.
No longer did one need to find a bartering partner who had the exact object you were looking for. Money allowed for the abstraction of value, such that one could "trade" food for a few metal coins.
Coins that had no practical use and no intrinsic value. You couldn't clothe yourself with coins. You couldn't build a house out of coins. You certainly couldn't eat them.
Seeing just how early on in society's evolution signs of commerce emerged really drives home the point that trade is nearly as intrinsic to human nature as the need for food and shelter.
In the millennia since our ancestors first upgraded from bartering to using currencies, money has had many different looks.
At first, hunter gatherers used shells and other natural objects.
Later on, we know that coins — and eventually paper money — came into common use.
Zooming ahead to more recent times, about 100 years ago, small metal tags with embossed names and other information — they were called Charga-plates and resembled military dog tags — were used to keep track of credit accounts.
From there, the precursor to the modern credit card came about in the form of a card that could only be used within a 2 block radius of Flatbush National Bank in Brooklyn, NY.
In 1950, Diners Club International — a name few people today will recognize — introduced the first modern credit card.
I don't mean to turn this into a college Anthropology course. There is a larger purpose in me taking you through this brief journey into the history of money.
Because by seeing how the concept of money started — and has evolved — my hope is that it makes it easier for you to pull back the veil and see money for what it truly is. When one can stop thinking of money as small green pieces of paper and jingling metal coins, a true breakthrough in thinking becomes possible.
Don't get me wrong. Those representations of value are useful ways of keeping score — but the paper or metal object you hold in your hand is not the valuable thing.
Once you strip away all the noise — in its purest sense, money is just a representation of stored value.
A battery contains within it a given amount of energy and releases it when you put it into a gadget and turn it on. But the battery is not the energy itself.
So it is with money. The physical money we hold is simply a representation of stored value. The swipe of a credit card — or the signing of a check — is just an agreement to return value.
And all agreements are based on trust.
That brings us to an ultimate truth about money:
Money, and the value that comes from it, ultimately arises from the trust that society has placed in those symbols.
Whether that symbol is a shell, or a coin or a Charga-plate — the trust each member of society has in what that symbol can "get them" — a cup of coffee, a car repair, a new home — is the true basis of money.
Small segue: Interestingly, the largest big city to where I live, Baltimore, has a local currency called the BNote. Businesses and individuals within the city can exchange regular US dollars for BNotes and use them to purchase goods and services at participating merchants.
A quick look at Wikipedia will show you that local "community currencies" are alive and well all across the US.
If that's not a sign of trust, I don't know what is.
Now, if you've stuck with me thus far, your mind has expanded in ways most people can't even fathom. Your head might even be aching a bit from the realization.
That's ok.
Now it's just a hop, skip and a jump to truly appreciating the next evolution of money:
Cryptocurrencies.
You see, since its invention, money has evolved alongside human societies — always matching the environment and level of sophistication of the society using it.
When we lived a hunter-gatherer existence, money was symbolized by natural objects: shells, whale teeth, etc.
Our money matched our environment — and it matched the technological capabilities of the time.
As societies evolved to more sophisticated structures — learning to smelt ore and mint coins … perfecting the paper-making process… currency in those forms became the dominant types.
Now that society is once again expanding its environment — to digital frontiers — our money is evolving right alongside us.
Bitcoin may be the 800-lb gorilla in the room when it comes to digital currencies. But it's far from the only one.
As with all emerging markets, there will be winners and there will be losers. The thousands of cryptocurrencies currently in existence will start to dwindle down as stronger technologies outpace weaker ones.
Ultimately, just as with any other market, one or two dominant players will emerge.
Coke, Pepsi and the "also rans"…
FedEx, UPS and the "pray it arrives" shipping companies…
Microsoft, Apple and all the tech startups hoping to get acquired…
Where you position yourself now can make the difference between thriving in a free and open society or being bogged down in the stagnant economy of a totalitarian surveillance state. They could coexist and you'll want to understand the path to the former.
Tomorrow I'm going live in our private Prosperity Pub Telegram Channel to discuss near-term risks and opportunities in Bitcoin in light of the current market turmoil and geopolitics. Plus, I'll give you a way to trade that opportunity without needing a crypto trading account.
It's completely free — You'll just need to join me and hundreds of other readers on Telegram by clicking the link above. See you there. | 
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