A brief history of money from ancient times to the present day

Cashless future The end of the 20th century was marked by the rapid growth of information technology, and this technological breakthrough also affected the fate of money. In fact, now we are entering a cashless era, when the physical transfer of banknotes from one person to another begins to look like an atavism (according to the forecasts of VTB specialists, in the first half of 2019 the share of payment for goods and services by bank card in the Russian Federation will reach 50% - a record figure for the entire period of observation ) All our funds are mainly kept in bank accounts, transfers are made in a couple of mouse clicks, contactless payment technologies are being developed. Once upon a time, the first bank bills allowed merchants to abandon the need to take heavy bags of coins with them on a trip, but now you can go shopping with one smartphone.

What will happen in the future, no one knows. However, we can say with confidence that the essence of money will hardly change. Like two thousand years ago, everything that people think of as money can be money: cattle and grain, gold and silver, numbers in bank books and data in the blockchain. Money is what a person agrees to accept in payment, and this is their essence. As of February 23, 2022, the bitcoin rate is $38,000 per coin