Evolution of man and money

The development of Bitcoin and blockchain began approximately 70,000 years ago when Homo sapiens surpassed their biological limits as a species. This is a story that is deeply rooted in human evolution.

Humans have inhabited this planet for more than 2 million years. Homo sapiens appeared only 150,000 years ago. Something happened 70,000 years ago that activated our prefrontal cortex, speeding up our digestive system and stimulating other changes. Although no one knows “how” this happened, it quickly put us at the top of the food chain. 

And it was at this moment that the era of “history” began, which changed the future of the whole world. However, before we discuss what has changed, let's look at the details.

Dunbar's Number

Robin Dunbar was a British anthropologist who spent many years studying the average social group size and brain function of humans and primates throughout history. According to his findings, the human cognitive processing system can only handle a maximum of 150 “friends,” or stable social relationships.

These 150 people became known as “Dunbar’s number.” This number is considered the evolutionary biological limit by which we, Homo sapiens, live to this day. 

However...

The dawn of history began 70,000 years ago after people learned to cooperate in groups larger than this number. 

How?

Communication changes everything. However, not all forms of communication. Animals, mammals, insects, etc., all communicate in their own way, and as a result, form tribes, colonies, etc. In fact, most species are much better suited to organizing and building complex cooperative colonies than humans. However, communication in such groups occurs purely on a biological level.

Homo sapiens evolved above all other species because we are somehow able to communicate at a higher level, beyond our biological limitations.

Complex Language

Language may have evolved as a “cheap” means of social grooming, allowing early humans to maintain social cohesion. Dunbar believed that without language, people would spend half their time socially grooming, which would dramatically reduce cooperative productivity. Language also helped communities remain cohesive while reducing the need for social and physical intimacy. 

Complex language is a unique step in the evolution of our brain.. He gave us the time and space to develop a second layer of language:

Shared inventions

We are the only species that is able to communicate and share our views on things that don't even exist. 

Monkeys can lie. They can deceive their friend by saying that an eagle is flying in the sky. When his fellow monkey runs away, the trickster gets all the bananas for himself.

Monkeys can also warn each other of danger. They can say to each other: “there is a lion walking near the river,” for example. However, only a person can say “the lion is the spiritual ancestor of my people.” Only homo sapiens - who do not know each other, have never met, and have no biological reason to trust each other - can strike up a conversation and build mutual understanding simply because they are both Chinese or Italian or other “fictional” nationalities. Only homo sapiens can use the same reason to build pyramids or fight each other “in the name of our country,” as was the case during World War I and World War II. 

Collaborative inventions are languages as such, and there have been many of them over many millennia:

Caste

Races

Kingdoms, Kings

Gods

Religions

Nations

Laws

Corporations

Money

All of these things are designed to facilitate cooperation, helping to give form exchange and build a more complex society. One of the earliest “shared inventions” was money. It exists to this day because money is fundamentally necessary for the functioning of society.

Money and Communication

Money, at its most basic level, is a form of communication. Money is a “common invention,” an abstraction that we all agree is valuable. Forms of money have evolved over the years. From spices to shells, to coins, to gold, to paper, to plastic, and now to digital currencies. Money is the only form of communication that has stood the test of time and managed to overcome boundaries and barriers that other common inventions could not overcome.

Even religion cannot compare to the power of money. Why?

Because at the very foundation of society and its ability to grow and function lies one key element - value.. 

In addition, the ability to exchange value is precisely what makes society work. When we collaborate, we perform “work” that has some “value” and in all our interactions we exchange these values. 

It is also important to add that as society becomes more complex, value will be further abstracted in order to reduce the possibility of disagreement in exchange. That's why money is so important. Value is a subjective concept and can be expressed in many forms, but money is an objective tool that helps us enjoy values.

Attributes of Money

Before we determine what kind of money we need, let's look at the attributes of money. With each new type of money we add new attributes to it. However, with each new type of money we increase our dependence on trust. We live in the era of “fiat currency,” that is, a currency that relies on nothing more than “trust in the government” or “trust in the issuer.” 

That's why we need a new form of money. We need a form of money and storage that is open and decentralized, censorship resistant, open to the public, accessible to everyone. We need a digital, divisible token with a fixed maximum supply. And it already exists - since 2009.

Growing up in the digital world

Each generation was sure that “x” was real money. Gold and paper, backed by governments or central banks, have been the main players for the past few centuries. When we started switching to plastic, many people made a fuss about how it was “not real money.” The same thing is happening with digital money today. However, people adapt. Cryptocurrency is still seen by some as a fun Internet trinket, but for the next generation, paper and plastic money look set to become relics of the past.

Digital currencies are the future, especially those that are decentralized, censorship-resistant, cross-border.

Digital store of value

There is a lot of controversy surrounding the idea of ​​digital currencies that are not backed by the government. Most of the disputes are caused by their volatility.. People believe that “they will never become a currency” because they are unstable. And while this may be partly true, they miss the most important thing: before anything can become a medium of exchange, it must become a store of value. 

And establishing itself as a store of value can take quite a long time, especially if it poses a risk to many stakeholders in all corners of the world.

Critics also make the argument that cryptocurrency is “not backed by anything.”

Well, the last (and only) form of money that was real was gold. However, gold is also not backed by anything other than the fact that it is real and tangible, and therefore safe and reliable. It's also fungible, stable and recognizable, so we thought it had some value. By the way, gold also has a market cap of $7 trillion - and more importantly, it took 5,000 years to reach that mark. 

Networks

No one has ever predicted the growth of any network that has had a significant impact on society (this may be an exaggeration, but you get my point). The most important established networks are:

Electricity

Telephone

Internet

Social networks

Money and media of exchange

No one knew about their appearance or could predict their growth. I like to read old quotes from critics about these networks:

“The truth is that no online database can replace a newspaper, no CD can replace a competent teacher, no computer can change the way government is run,” said American astronaut and author Clifford Stoll in 1995.

“The growth of the Internet will stop when signs of “Metcalfe’s Law” become apparent. To most people have nothing to say to each other. By the year 2005 it will be obvious that the Internet has no influence on the economy.” - Paul Kragman, Nobel Prize winner in economics, wrote in 1998.

The same thing is happening with Bitcoin, since it is in its development stage. I found this quote in Wired magazine:

“Confused, tired, expired back in 2012 - Bitcoin.”

Looking into the future.. What will happen after money?

At the moment there are approximately 2000 digital currencies, in the long term there will probably be about 50 left - because the rest, except for those that are stupid fraudulent schemes or just stupid, appeared ahead of time. They are simply not needed anytime soon because money/values ​​must be sorted first.

Once all of this is done (which will take many years) we will see millions of applications being developed that will function much better in a world dealing with much more modern, decentralized forms of exchange, governance, identity. It is worth noting, however, that many applications work better in a centralized format - not every application is suitable for blockchain technology, and it can even harm many. However, fundamental elements of society such as value exchange, governance, and identity will undergo major innovation. Our task is to correctly build the first layer. Everything else will come later.

Adoption → Value → Stability

I believe that for this experiment to work, we need the following:

 • Increase adoption of cryptocurrencies.

 • Increase network value

 • We will see the asset class begin to stabilize, and then it will have a chance to become global, open, public, instant, a decentralized form of exchange (i.e. money).

For now, we need to focus our efforts on the first point. Points 2 and 3 will occur as a result of the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies. 

How can we do this? Simple (but not necessarily easy):

• Improving infrastructure. We just need to create better exchanges and better ways for people to get into the field. There is no better way to learn more about cryptocurrency than to buy it.

 • Infrastructure improvements should include wallets, nodes, tools like Metamask, etc. When people are already using cryptocurrency, they are interested in a better user experience. Wallets, for example, have come a long way in development, however, it is far from over yet.

 • Education.. All nascent industries come with charlatans and scammers looking to make a quick buck. Nowadays, we often have to deal with all sorts of useless projects like Bitconnect, USI Tech, Mayweather, which promise a cryptocurrency that can solve the problem of world hunger and clean your house, and perform a bunch of other useless crap functions. Many people wonder why this is even legal... In fact, many of them are not legal. Most of them are short-term scams that will disappear in a few weeks or months. However, people themselves need to understand at least something about this area and try to educate themselves and others. To this day, I have not found one simple answer to the question “what is this Bitcoin of yours anyway,” without hearing a dozen additional questions in response to my answer. However, we are already close. 

Final Thoughts

I hope that this long article (if you can make it through) will give the reader a good foundation for understanding why Bitcoin exists, why it is so important, why it is here to stay, and why “history” has begun to take a different trajectory.

And perhaps this understanding will help you understand what all the hype is about. Because, despite ICO scams and moronic projects, the world of cryptocurrency is now changing the course of history.

According to https://hackernoon.com