interesting, do you have any link to the source/document/scientific paper which describes it? Were rocks really used for trading?
Do you know which region this photo comes from?
They are from the island nation of Yap. Hard to believe you've never heard of them before...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rai_stonesCall me dumb ignorant, but no! In fact this part of science is really far from my circle of interests. But it is always good to learn something new, even about Micronesian tribes on bitcoin forum
'Dumb ignorant'? Certainly not!
Guess it's more of generational thing... Yapstones is just a tiny bit of - odd - random info I picked up when reading the
Riply's Believe it or not clips in the Sunday comics when I was a kid back in the 60's...
Nice little article about the stones being 'the original bitcoin'
https://www.sciencealert.com/the-original-bitcoin-still-exists-as-giant-stone-money-on-a-tiny-pacific-island. In this case the blockchain is the communal knowledge of each stones ownership history.
At a glance, these massive, heavy stone monuments (which are often taller than the people who own them) might not seem like they have a lot in common with a digital system of value that is encrypted, intangible, and basically invisible to human senses.
But that physical contrast masks the stunning shared feature of bitcoin and rai – both forms of currency depend upon a public, community ledger system, that provides transparency about transactions, as well as security, and all without needing a centralised bank structure.