The history of money, from seashells to banknotes to Bitcoin

Money, in and of itself, is nothing. It can be a shell, a metal coin, or a piece of paper with a historic image on it, but the value that people place on it has nothing to do with the physical value of the money. Money derives its value by being a medium of exchange, a unit of measurement and a storehouse for wealth.

Money has been around in some form since around 9000 BC when farmers would trade livestock and harvest for goods and services, however the first official coin ever minted occurred in modern day Turkey in 600 BC created by King Alyattes in Lydia.
The first coin like object originated in china where small circles cast in bronze were used as a form of trade, essentially becoming the actual, first "coins" used.

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One of the biggest steps in the usage of precious metal coins as currency is when the coins changed from being a unit of weight into a unit of value.
Soon enough people realized that carrying around large bags of coins was going to become quite difficult, and paper money was on the horizon. China again was one of the first to begin using paper money and by the time Marco Polo visited in 1200 A.D there was a booming trade in a multitude of denominations. It took Europe a full 400 years longer to begin using paper money but eventually the banks began issuing bank notes instead of coins. These notes held a certain value and could be exchanged at any time for their equivalent in precious metals such as gold or silver.

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For a long while paper money ruled until we entered the 20th century and credit cards and bank cards started becoming mainstream. Although this was more of a way to store value easily and safely rather than carrying around actual cash. The first credit cards were issued in the early 1900's and were not dissimilar to dog-tags, stamped with the customers details.
Fast forward to the 21st century and in 2009 the very first and increasingly well known cryptocurrency Bitcoin was invented. It is the first decentralized digital currency and has been changing the way the world see's money. Not controlled by banks or corporations its price is entirely dependent upon the notion of supply and demand. It is said to be the end of fiat currency as we know it and i firmly believe this to be true. To date there are more than 1000 different cryptocurrencies ranging in use case, however Bitcoin is the original and has so far stood the test of time. Whilst many people believe the whole crypto scene to be a bubble or a scam it is proving itself day-in day-out. It won't be long until cryptocurrency is mainstream and shortly after it will replace fiat currency and our current centralised system entirely.

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Resources
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businessclub/money/11174013/The-history-of-money-from-barter-to-bitcoin.html
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/roots_of_money.asp