The 5,000-Year Story of Money (In One Read)

How humanity turned value into symbols.

INTRO — VALUE IS AN ILLUSION, BUT A POWERFUL ONE

Money is humanity’s greatest shared myth.
Not a lie, but an agreement — a collective belief so strong it reshaped civilization.

Money didn’t start with banks or gold or paper.
It began as objects—shells, stones, beads—that people agreed had value.
The miracle of money is simple: it only works because everyone believes in the same illusion.

But over 5,000 years, that illusion evolved into the engine of empires, trade networks, and eventually digital currencies floating in the cloud.

This is the short version of that long story.