History/Future of Value Exchange in Private Commerce
Chapter 1: "I want that"
Whenever I wake up, no matter where I am, I want a beverage in the first hour. It's a behavior chain that I gladly continue, and have no plans on eradicating from my routine.
Every morning I want either a hot tea/coffee or a cold iced tea/coffee. It's quite simple. But, it requires that I have a supply of either tea or coffee beans. Let's keep it simple and ignore my coconut milk, honey, coffee grinder, etc.
This means I need to exchange something of value that I have to offer, and find someone who has tea/coffee and is willing to accept what I have to offer. We barter the goods and services, and all is well.
Chapter 2: "Oooh bright and SHINEY!"
If I cannot find someone willing to give me tea/coffee in exchange for my goods or services, I may get a little frustrated. I may change my goods or services, learn a new trade or farm a different crop. Maybe I craft a different furnature. Unless I make a change to my offered value, it seems like my access to my favorite morning beverage may be in jeopardy.
So for this reason, commodity backed currency becomes important. Shiney rocks are important for everyone, so everyone agrees to collect them, and now everyone can trade on a level playing field!
Chapter 3: "IOU"
For security reasons, and because large collections of bright and shiney rocks are hard to move around, the people chose to adopt a paper note system instead. The bank vault held the coinage, and distributed paper IOU notes that could be exchanged for hard money. The bank realized that by issuing the IOU notes, it had a great advantage in the economy. They issued more IOUS than they had coins.
Chapter 4: "Break the Cycle"
Over and over again, the people rebuilt the economy, redefined wealth, replaced systems, and relearned the way to exchange value. Even though the bankers like to still issue IOUs, the people are discovering a new way to exchange value using new tools: The global internet of connectivity, combined with the infallibility of blockchain technology.
Chapter 5: "Crawl, Walk, Run"
The people will start a new cycle, but it always follows a growth pattern. A natural evolution, albeit painful, from infancy to adulthood. It may not be BTC or Ether, but it will be blockchain based value exchange. The stumbling block will be the over inflation of things like USD, Euro, Yuan etc.
Chapter 6: "Coffee in the Morning"
And so it goes. I will use whatever makes it easiest for me to get my tea.
Thank you for your time,
JG