FROM BARTER TO BLOCKCHAIN: WHY THE FUTURE OF MONEY MUST BE INCLUSIVE.

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Money is a medium of payment, a measure of value, legal tender, a store of value, and a standard for deferred payment. Money eases buying and selling and helps people to accumulate wealth.

The history of money goes back to a time when people kept their gold with the blacksmith for safekeeping and were given paper certificates in return as receipts or evidence of their deposit. This was the birth of banking and paper money.

People then traded gold for other goods and services because of gold's value. This era was after the era of trade by barter, where goods were exchanged for goods and because of the many complications of its practice, a better way was adopted.

Digital money, on the other hand, came as the result of wire transfers and the creation of credit cards. This, in time, replaced the need to carry paper money everywhere you go and also created the possibility and the ease of international/border trades. People can send money from one country to another, closing the limitations of border barriers.

The point I am trying to make by the above explanation is to explain how far we have gone from the days when money did not exist to the present day where money has become electronic, and human life has taken a digital form with the help of technology.

The benefit of a cashless economy cuts across safety for individuals, allowing people, business owners, as well as the ordinary citizen, to walk in the streets without the form of cash, since it allows you to perform transactions you as an individual or a business would have done with cash, by means of electronic means.

The redesign of the naira at the end of 2023 made the paper money in Nigeria very scarce, leading to a situation where cash was completely unavailable, since it was not the intension of the government to go cashless and the economy and the people of the society were not ready for a cashless policy, even though the government had started a gradual introduction of the policy for a long period.

This resulted in a serious crisis; trade became difficult, especially in the informal sectors, since most of them did not have a bank account to be able to receive payments through electronic means. It was difficult for individuals to move from one place to another because bus fares were paid using cash, and not having cash became a serious problem.

If properly planned and executed, the cashless policy has more merits compared to its demerits. I find it more comfortable and flexible to transact solely using electronic means of payment rather than holding cash everywhere I go because I need to make a transaction.

Thankfully, a lot of traders in the market, after the scarcity of cash I mentioned earlier, opened bank accounts; businesses that provided point-of-sale services emerged, making it easier for the traders in the informal sector ready for the cashless economy.

The move to complete enforcement of a cashless economy will have a positive impact on my life; this is so because the whole society will be forced to adopt the cashless economy. Thieves who try to steal will leave a digital print, and it will make it easier for them to be caught.

My name is @rishagamo, and this is my response to the Hive Learners weekly featured prompt, week 227, episode 02: “CASH OR DIGITAL”