Nick Szabo's essay "Shelling Out: The Origins of Money". The origins of money trace back to ancient collectibles, which played a crucial role in human evolution and cooperation. Key points:
-- Collectibles: precursors of money, enabled early human cooperation
-- Properties: secure, hard to forge, easily measurable
-- Lowered costs in wealth transfers (inheritance, marriage, tribute)
-- Homo sapiens increased carrying capacity 10x over Neanderthals
-- Enabled food sharing between tribes
-- Used in dispute resolution and tribute payments
-- Flints may have been first collectibles
-- Attributes shared with precious metals and reserve commodities
-- Implemented proto-money functions purer than in prehistory
-- Modern collecting instincts may be evolutionary remnants
-- First secure forms of embodied value different from utility
-- Forerunners of today's money
-- Evolution chain: Collectibles --> Standardized jewelry --> Precious metal coins --> Paper money --> Bitcoin