What is the essence of money?

The essence of money is universal equivalent.

Currency introduction:

The essence of money is universal equivalent. The function of money is to measure the value of goods at the beginning and can be circulated all over the world. It is one of the media for human beings to preserve wealth and an exchange contract between property holders.

In fact, money, as a universal equivalent, is a general representative of social wealth, but money is not equal to social wealth itself, but only a part of social wealth. The third popular definition of money is to equate money with income. Income is the flow in a certain period of time, and money is the stock at a certain point in time. If money is defined as income, then the amount of money cannot be measured.

Theoretically, the change of money purchasing power and the change of commodity price are two sides of the same problem.

With the development of technology itself, production costs will continue to decrease, and the long-term downward trend of high-tech consumer goods prices is inevitable. In terms of traditional consumption, the speed of technological progress is very slow, and its price change will be more obviously affected by supply and demand and capital speculation.

Currency type:

1, physical currency

Refers to the physical object whose non-monetary use value is equal to the monetary use value. Commodities that can be used as physical currency have the following characteristics: universal acceptability; Stable value; Separability of the average value; Lightweight and portable. Obviously, all metals have these characteristics.

2. Virtual currency

Virtual currency does not have the same legal status as legal tender. The main features of virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and TEDA are that they are issued by non-monetary authorities and exist in digital form by using encryption technology and distributed accounts or similar technologies. They have no legal compensation and should not and cannot be circulated in the market as money.

3. Alternative currency

Generally speaking, it refers to the exchange of paper metal currency or metal strip for physical objects, and its own value is the value of the currency it replaces. The advantages of alternative currency over physical currency are: the cost of printing paper money is lower than that of casting metal; Avoid the wear and tear of metal currency in circulation, and even intentionally grind it, so that precious metal currency can be preserved.