Understanding Crypto Fundamentals: Value Investing in Cryptoassets and Management of Underlying Risks

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to APress Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023

T. JeegersUnderstanding Crypto Fundamentalshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9309-6_1

1. A Brief History of Money

Thomas Jeegers¹  

(1)

Vienna, Austria

 

Central banks in their present form would no longer exist; nor would money… The successors to Bill Gates could put the successors to Alan Greenspan out of business.

—Mervyn King, 1999

The history of cryptoassets, like this book, begins with money. In particular, with the established monetary system. Understanding what makes money and how it has evolved is essential to understand the value proposition of cryptoassets—Bitcoin in particular. Therefore, let us start with the basics by going back several millennia ...