9000 BC
Barter was an advantageous way to exchange goods and services centuries ago because it enabled parties to directly get what they wanted.
People could exchange tools for services, food for protection etc. Livestock was also considered wealth: the more cows or sheep a person owned, the wealthier he was considered.
1100 BC
In Ancient China, small replicas of goods were cast from metal at the same time as other civilizations used beads and shells as coins.
These coins first took the form of imitations of the cowrie shells used in ceremonial exchanges. Soon after first metal coins were introduced. They were not initially round, instead being either knife shaped or spade shaped.
600 BC
Eventually, more communities began using precious metals to make coins.
People in the ancient civilization of Lydia (modern day Turkey) were one of the first to use coins made of gold and silver. King Alyattes minted the first official currency.
618 - 907
Carrying around large quantities of coins proved to be difficult so it Chinese, once again, innovated the payments with the idea of paper money.
It is hardly surprising that the first paper money appeared in China. With the invention of paper and printing on here, this country was almost destined to produce the first paper money.
a copper coating
1252
Meanwhile, Europeans started using gold coins for international commerce. Florence minted the first coins named florins and they were accepted in most placed in Europe.
I was just going places”
1275-1292
Five centuries after the Chienese started using paper money, Marco Polo, one of the most famous travelers throughout history, introduced this idea to European powers after visiting China.
1661
It took paper money a long time to become more widespread. Sweden was the first European country to begin printing bank notes in the 17th century.
Banknotes were not backed by anything, their value was based on the public's confidence that the bank would pay the value of the note in coins upon demand.
is in physical money.
1816
England became the first country to back its currency with gold. The physical quantity of gold and the fact that money was linked to its value acted as a limit for money issuance.
Following this event, other European powers began backing bank notes with gold. The Gold Standard was born. The United States implemented the same system in 1900.
1866
Western Union introduced first money transfers based on company’s extensive telegraph network.
WU provided their services in Europe, Asia, Americas, and North Africa. As the telephone replaced the telegraph, money transfer would become its primary business.
1913
The USA established the Federal Reserve System.
This official central bank served the financial interests of the country.
It was granted sole rights to issue bank notes in the USA, responsibility for implementing the monetary policy of the US Dollar.
The Fed decides how much money is printed annually.
1946
John Biggins invented the ‘Charg-it’ card, widely known as the first credit card.
But even before ‘Charg-it’ customers began enjoying credit from retailers. Some of the issuers, such as department stores and gas stations, began making individual credit cards for consumers.
Diners Club was the first actual ‘credit card’, which gave customers the ability to purchase meals from restaurants located in New York.
1972
Lloyds Bank ‘Cashpoint’ was the first verified ATM using plastic cards with a magnetic stripe to it.
The first modern ATM was an IBM 2984 and came into use at High Street, Brentwood, Essex, the UK.
1994
With the rise of the Internet during the 1990s, online shopping became popular. Consumers embraced the ability to make purchases online.
Pizza Hut may was one of the first retailers to execute a e-commerce transaction. The company began allowing people to order pizza on its official website.
1997
Coca-Cola offered the first mobile payment solution by creating vending machines that enabled consumers to pay for their drinks by sending text messages from mobile phones.
It took mobile payments a while to become common, but they totally forsaw the desire of customers for paying on the go.
1998
PayPal was launched. The company began as a mobile payment solution with wireless transactions on Palm Pilots, but they switched focus to online payments when it found a strong customer base on websites like eBay.
2002
Contactless payment is made possible by a technology known as NFC or Near Field Communication. MasterCard its own use of NFC in 2002 to turn nearly anything into an instant and secure form of payment. That innovation paved a way to smartphones, bracelets and watches replacing purses.
per 1 Bitcoin was 19,783.21 USD
2008
Mysterious “Satoshi Nakamoto” published the whitepaper of Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer Electronic Cash System. Bitcoin version 0.1 is released and the first transaction takes place a year later. Fun fact: One of the first-ever Bitcoin transaction was used to buy two pizzas. That's a second time a pizza-related story made it in the history of money. Wow.
2011
In October 2011, the first mobile phones with contactless solutions appeared. Google Pay was first to allow its users to make purchases using the technology. Apple introduced its own solution - ApplePay - 3 years later. Shortly after NFC payments become more widespread and accepted in the society.
2018
Crypterium released a mobile app that can change the financial industry forever.
It combines the newest technologies, like contactless payments and digital assets, giving its users the freedom of choice they’ve never had before.
Now you can decide, what’s the money you can pay with
