I have always had this question that fascinates me in its complexity and I just can’t seem to wrap my head around it. I hope you can follow along with my thought process as I try to formulate a decent question that’s a bit anthropology, economics and some political science.

Thinking about the evolution of humans on earth, at some point in history humans would have decided that some thing, object or service was worth its equal weight for another thing, object or service.

At some point, humanity created a system by which they either bartered or traded services.

At what point in human history was it decided that this object, let’s say gold for example, was worth more than any other object and could be used to create a system in which people who owned more of this object were able to trade more?

Why is it that tree bark isn’t traded? Or dirt? What is it about any particular tangible or now possible intangible item (digital currency) that creates a system in which people can pay to live life, from something that’s essentially a creation of value?