The story of Money begins with Barter System and now almost close to Blockchain based Crypto Currency. Let’s have a look this journey…

• Barter system: Around 5000 years ago, this system was prevailing to direct exchange of goods e.g. if a farmer wants to buy a clay pot from a potter he will pay/exchange in the value of grain/animal or any other farm products he has and the at which both the parties are agrees. But around sixth century BC, the system became obsolete because, it was going so tough & tedious to assign an exact value to all available goods e.g. if a cobbler wants to buy a wooden almirah from a carpenter, how will they trade? Because a carpenter does not need a lot of pair of sleepers. And, that’s how the metal coins came in the picture.
• Metal coins: In India, around sixth century BC, metal coins came into the picture. In the period of Mugal Emperor “Sher Shah Suri”, the coins of Gold, Silver and Bronze of fixed weight and value was introduced and named as ‘Rupee’ for the first time. This was the golden era of coin as currency whose effect is still thrills us today but this era of gold and silver coins also went absolute. The reasons are so many. It may be because of dearth of these premium metals or ease in their cast and duplicity.
• Paper money and inception of Banking system: Around 700 CE, China took first move towards paper money. Though, coins were still in the vogue but if someone wants an exchange against coins, he may go for it. The institutions those had right and power to print notes (paper money) were farther called as Banks. The flow of Notes (paper money) captured the market over the world and the paper money become so popular and viable over the world as a wheel of global trade and exchange with the help of Centralized Banking System.

The bar graph shown in the above fig. shows the global average of inflation as 4.4%. This may be understood as there is a gap between demand and supply of notes i.e. the counterfeit currency in the flow of trade which eventually results the inflation in the market.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on International Anti-Corruption Day, December 9 that, Corruption is costing the global economy $3.6 trillion dollars every year which is more than the economy of India (source: Wikipedia, 2022). It may be in many forms: bribery, embezzlement, money laundering, tax evasion and cronyism and on and on.

And, these all are carried out in Cash, because Cash do not have self-enabled ledger system. And, to reimburse this drawback of Paper money, Plastic money and Digital payment system got evolved with the advancement in internet & financial technology.   

• Evolution of Plastic money and Digital payments: The 21^st century has given the two-noble form of currency, one is Digital Payments based on the highly encrypted secure mobile or internet payments and another is Virtual Payment system based on the revolutionary, next generation Blockchain Technology. Digital/mobile payments are now far more convenient to carry wallet and even faster than the ‘Taking out money from wallet and giving it to the shopkeeper” after the evolvement of QR based mobile payment system. QR based payment system is really faster, convenient and user friendly than the Swiping, NFC, Fingerprint and other available options. Digital payment system has brought following revolutionary change in FinTech world:
• As per the data shared by RBI, the cost for printing, distributing and storing the currency notes is around Rs. 15-17 for a single Rs. 100 notes in a four-year cycle. And, this is how we’re wasting 15-17 % of our economy for non-consumable goods and this is all can be saved by making our economy solely digital. For more detail, go through my earlier blog article on #Digital India.
• Digital payment system makes Demand & Supply system faster resulting world trade becomes furious and these all promotes Globalization and Liberalization directly or indirectly.
• If money is in your wallet, it will not grow and will not be an integral part of economic flow. But, as it held in the bank or in a network of digital payment it is growing every single day and also rotating the wheal of economic growth, whether you know or don’t.

Inspite, many good characteristics, Digital money (based on a Centralized Banking System) has some drawbacks and which is leading to the evolvement of another noble form of currency that is, A decentralized, Blockchain technology based, Un-hackable, peer-to-peer payment system #Virtual Currency.

• Virtual Currency:  In 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto released Bitcoin which became the standard for virtual currency, this was based on the state-of-the art revolutionary technology Blockchain. As of November 2021, nearly 3% of the world’s money (over $1 trillion) is flowing in the form of Bitcoin. But, the world is literally confused about its legality because of its inherent decentralized mechanism. Although, present day its not that fast and furious to transact and mine but, I strongly believe with the advancement of Web 3.0, Blockchain would be in its biggest game ever played by internet and this will completely change of worlds game of operation. I’m sharing, the predictions, I see today, in its future with you:
• Since, this technology is run by network of blocks (links) with peer-to-peer connection which makes it next to impossible to hack.
• Since, it’s completely decentralized henceforth, it cannot be influenced by any governing authority or centralized control system. And, this is how it gives the full control & power to its user and makes every single entity of the network countable and remarkable.
• Corruption will be no more in the picture of financial system because, cutting-edge ledger record system of Blockchain will not hold any space for such thing.
• It will not only speed up the world exchange but also reduce the transaction charges up to many folds. Because, there would not be any Jhol of Currency exchange etc.
• Don’t worry, Blockchain in Fin-Tech will not remove physical banks or any kind of banking system but they will also be an individual player as other user not as earlier as a centralized player.

I see, Blockchain far beyond Fin-Tech world. Blockchain, in coming future will make every goods, property and commodity its integral part. One day everything would be connected with blocks of blockchain and there would not by any loop for corruption, fraud, scam, adulteration, bribery, embezzlement, money laundering, tax evasion, cronyism etc.

Despite, all wonderful and revolutionary inherent characteristics of Blockchain Technology. As the most famous and universal saying: “Each new thing has two faces”. It also might have, but I believe, as an human, we all here to evolve and grow continuously and also ready to resolve the ill-effects of a game changing evolvement.

And, that’s all, how we are evolving, growing and taking this planet to new heights from centuries…