The One Thing We Can All Agree on: Importance of Money
By: Juan M. Hernandez
Tags: Blockchain, Ethereum, Money, Currency Trading, Blockchain Technology

Few would contest the statement that money has been one of the most important catalysts in the evolution of civilizations. From cattle and sheep to wampum beads, to precious metals and eventually fiat, societies around the globe have always sought to create an effective medium of exchange in order to boost business.

A perfect illustration of the importance of money can be seen in Saifedean Ammous’s recent The Bitcoin Standard, or Yuval Noah Harari’s bestselling Sapiens, which explores money as one of the ‘great unifiers,’ alongside religion and empires. Money as a force that unites is a concept we’ve witnessed for millennia. Indeed, even during the times of the Crusades, both Muslims and Christians happily used the opposing side’s coins, despite these being adorned with the prophets of their enemies — gold was widely accepted due to relative scarcity and the fact that it was (and still is) impossible to synthesize.

There’s a fascinating game theory dynamic at play with money — if a given form of currency is valuable solely to one group, it will, by extension, become valuable to trading partners involved with said group. Consider the case of the Americas: prior to the arrival of the Spaniards, the Native Americans did not perceive gold to have any value. It was only upon understanding the value that the resource had in Spain that they changed their tune — the metal rapidly gained utility (and subsequent value) as it allowed them to purchase innumerable products with just small amounts of gold.

It’s easy to draw some parallels between traditional conceptions of what makes materials ideal means of exchange with the burgeoning field of digital assets. Constraints such as divisibility, portability, and potential for counterfeiting evaporate as stores of value and mediums of exchange migrate to cyberspace. It would be absurd to overlook these digital assets, or to ignore the role they’ll inevitably play in the constantly evolving markets.

One of the most interesting properties that we’re focused on at OpenFinance Network is liquidity — that is, ensuring that there are always participants available to purchase or sell it, making the asset easily accessible on the market. The example of gold is an apt one, given that it is recognized around the world and has value to all, thus making it easy to exchange for goods or services.

The big challenge with liquidity is finding a suitable pool of buyers and sellers. Blockchain technology allows for the seamless and trustless transfer of digital assets around the world in a matter of seconds, and could ensure that this pool extends to 7 billion plus people. That’s exactly what we aim to facilitate with our offering through the OpenFinance Network. The emerging space lacks refined UX/UI and services to make digital securities available to the more technophobic. There’s still a degree of familiarity required to transact “on-chain,” which may deter many from getting involved. We want to put an end to this, which is why we’re building an easy-to-use, intuitive platform for the trading of security tokens.

If money truly is one of the great unifiers, we need to ensure that it’s fit for purpose, particularly as its next iteration unfolds in cyberspace. New forms of money need to be understood, appreciated and subsequently made accessible to everyone. It’s time to get started.

As always, if you’re not already, join the conversation on Telegram and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest developments with OFN.

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Juan M. Hernandez is the Founder and CEO of OpenFinance Network, the trading platform for security tokens and other alternative assets. Juan is a serial entrepreneur, technologist, and polymath experienced in financial markets, exchanges, and blockchain technology. He holds a CS degree from Northwestern University and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

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