Deep Dive Special: What is Money?

This Deep Dive into Money's History and Bitcoin's Place, offers a comprehensive overview of the evolution of money, tracing its journey from early barter systems and commodity monies like cattle and salt to the widespread adoption of precious metals. It explains how the invention of coinage by the Lydians, later adopted by empires like Rome, centralized money, and how monetary mismanagement contributed to Rome's decline. The discussion then moves to representative money and the gold standard, eventually leading to the fiat currency system managed by central banks and sustained by fractional-reserve banking. Finally, the the team reviews the emergence of Bitcoin, analyzing its unique monetary properties and its potential role as "digital gold" or a future medium of exchange, while also addressing criticisms and challenges to its widespread adoption.