When it comes to money, there doesn’t seem to be much you need to know about it. It’s simply what you use to take care of life’s needs. But then, the truth is that even though we use it daily, money is such a fluid concept that it’s easy to lose track of how frequently it changes forms.
While you might know exactly how much is in your bank account, other things about money might not be so obvious to you. Here are two of them:
We have more control over it than we think.
The common conception is that we don’t have much control over the value of money in the economy. We believe it’s all due to ”market forces.’ For the most part, this is true. But then, we do have some collective control over how much money is really worth. Did you know that how much a product or service is worth depends on how much you’re willing to pay for it?
If everyone in the country decided they weren’t willing to pay more than $10 for an iPhone, one of two things would happen: Either Apple reduces the prices of its phones, or it stops selling them altogether. That’s really incredible if you think about it—the fact that people can actually decide how much they want to pay for a product.
Now, you might be asking yourself why we never really see any of this. Why don’t people decide to pay a small amount for goods? It’s because of the value. Once people believe they get enough value from the offer, they will be willing to pay as much as it really costs. Thus, there’s no need to strong-arm companies into offering lower prices.
It’s becoming lighter.
In the past, money used to be as heavy as the things it could buy. In fact, one thing it could buy was money. Cave dwellers traded items instead of spending money. Later on, a common standard for money was agreed upon—gold. Gold was rare and valuable enough to represent goods and services. After gold, silver coins came into the picture. Silver coins are much lighter and smaller than gold bars, and they represent different values.
Soon after small silver coins, we decided that they were too bogus and heavy to be carried around. We then decided to get something more versatile—paper.
Paper is currently the predominant form of money, and it’s being used all over the world. However, even that is slowly phasing out and being replaced by electronic alternatives. Plastic cards are the new form of money, and they can carry as much money as you have without increasing weight. Closely following plastic cards are cryptocurrencies. These are even more versatile alternatives.
Unlike our current form of money, cryptocurrency has the potential to replace all current kinds of money. Not only is it the lightest money so far (it literally weighs nothing), its transactions can also be processed at lightning speed and between several accounts all over the world. It’s basically the most evolved form of money we have now. You can find out more about cryptocurrency including how to profit from it on Bitcoin Evolution.
The bottom line
The truth is that money is more than just a legal tender now. It has become a blend of technology, innovation, and convenience. It’s interesting to know what innovations and improvements our currencies make and how they affect our lives.
