Money serves as a universally accepted medium for exchanging goods and services, settling debts, and measuring economic value. Its core functions include acting as a medium of exchange, providing a standard unit of account, enabling the storage of value over time, and occasionally serving as a benchmark for deferred payments. In essence, money simplifies transactions and facilitates economic activity within a defined region or socio-economic system.
By 1900, most of the industrializing nations were on some form of a gold standard, with paper notes and silver coins constituting the circulating medium.
By 1919, William Stanley Jevons's four functions of money (a medium of exchange, a common measure of value, a standard of value, and a store of value) were summarized in a couplet.
In 1971, the U.S. government suspended the convertibility of the dollar to gold, leading many countries to de-peg their currencies from the U.S. dollar. This marked a shift towards fiat currencies unbacked by physical commodities.
In 1971, the United States was one of the last countries to break away from the gold standard, contributing to the global shift towards floating fiat currencies.
By 1990, all money transferred between the central bank and commercial banks in the United States was in electronic form, marking a significant step in the digitization of money.
Since the launch of the Euro in 2002, there has been significant counterfeiting of Euro banknotes and coins, although considerably less than for the U.S. dollar.
In 2008, Bitcoin was conceived, introducing a decentralized currency that requires no trusted third party.
In 2012, electronic transactions accounted for 20 to 58 percent of transactions, depending on the country, indicating the increasing dominance of digital currency.
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