Introduction

Throughout history, humans have counted on some sort of payment system to purchase goods or services we desired or needed. Beginning with the barter system, mankind started to use livestock, grain, shells, metal coins, pieces of deerskin, the wampum, gold, the gold-backed dollar, credit cards, and most recently digital payments. The outbreak of coronavirus has accelerated health and safety concerns around using cash and coins, with consumers and merchants both more eager than ever to adopt digital payment methods. In this lab project, we are encouraged to use a timeline to tell a story. The initiative of this project is to understand the history before all these financial technologies and modern payments are made possible, and further to speculate the trend of future payments. 

Inspiration 

The country that I come from is prevailing in cash transactions. We have an old saying that goes “Those who pay with cash are the richest”. I guess that is because money is a substantial possession, not merely an abstract concept to us. However, the pandemic has acted as a catalyst for the necessary and inevitable shift toward a more digital world, including payment processes in my country. I saw many news articles talking about how digital payments have exponentially evolved with the escalating coronavirus cases. Younger generations are drawn into contactless payments and some even suspect cash payment may never come back. Square has disclosed data about how COVID-19 affects consumers spending behavior and businesses pivot from contactless payment globally. You can see the full report here. The chart (figure.1) shows global cash transactions decreased since the outbreak of COVID-19.

The cashless businesses model jumped calibrating the surge of COVID-19(figure.2). All the information inspires me to discover the history of the monetary system.

Methods

After deciding on the topic, I began probing and gathering the data from various sources, Wikipedia, news articles and blogs mostly. My record is based on historical record of way payments around the world. After I obtained enough datasets, I listed down the ways of transaction each era in a spreadsheet(figure.3). The timeline was automatically generated by TimelineJS, an open-source tool created by Northwestern University Knight Lab which enables novel users to build visually appealing, and interactive timelines simply using Google spreadsheet. I found it is easy to navigate with the demonstration video and step by step instruction. Even though I encountered problems such as  visualizing B.C year, I got my problem fixed via the FAQ section.

Results

The timeline(figure.4) is visually rich and enables people to easily view the events in a chronological order and discover the overlapping events. I’ve noticed that digital currency and transactions, such as Cryptocurrency, Venmo, and Square were launched in between 2009. This intrigues me to do more research on this particular year. Also, people might assume paper currency 806  would soon transform to a more advanced payment system, however it did not. China was 500 years ahead of other countries in trade and payment methods. When tracinging back at the timeline we have to understand, there was a time when information was limited and technological innovation was not as today. I also discovered some fun facts that I would not have noticed only because of this project. The first online purchase was made in 1994 for a pizza order via a website called PizzaNet(figure.5)in Santa Cruz and the first mobile transaction was via a vending machine from Coca Cola company in 1998. 

Reflection

Through this timeline project, I am able to have a clear vision to know the history behind modern transactions. China was once a leader in trade and payment methods, but after the Industrial Revolution, the Western world took off massively with technological developments hence dominated the world economy. However, the global power is shifting again. China is wrestling with developed countries by its economical influence, further now ahead in the development of digital currency. If I have more time, I would like to dig deeper into the specific year, for example around the year 2009, what were the factors that motivate the booming of digital payments. And, I also want to do more research on the future monetary and transactions system. As for the design of TimelineJS I wonder if it is able to accommodate the needs of the countries with different preferences to tell time. Linear order from the left to right is not adapted to some countries. What I am trying to communicate is the currency and transactions we take for granted today may soon become obsolete tomorrow. 

Reference

A history of payments: Payment collection through the ages. London & Zurich. (2018, December 18). Retrieved September 17, 2021, from https://www.londonandzurich.co.uk/guides/a-history-of-payments-payment-collection-through-the-ages/. 

Chengevelyn. “Foreign Travelers to China Will Be Able to Use the Digital Yuan, Central Bank Says.” CNBC, CNBC, 16 July 2021, www.cnbc.com/2021/07/16/pboc-foreign-travelers-to-china-will-be-able-to-use-digital-yuan.html. 

Public Broadcasting Service. (1996, October 26). The history of money. PBS. Retrieved September 17, 2021, from https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/history-money/. 

Rabouin, Dion. “U.S. Is Losing the Global Race on Digital Currency.” Time, Time, 21 Sept. 2021, time.com/6099105/us-china-digital-currency-central-bank/. 

Rampton, J. (2016, June 17). The evolution of the Mobile Payment. TechCrunch. Retrieved September 17, 2021, from https://techcrunch.com/2016/06/17/the-evolution-of-the-mobile-payment/. 

Square. (n.d.). History of money and payments. Square. Retrieved September 17, 2021, from https://squareup.com/us/en/townsquare/history-of-money-and-payments. 

Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, August 28). Venmo. Wikipedia. Retrieved September 17, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venmo. 

Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, September 14). Bitcoin. Wikipedia. Retrieved September 17, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin. 

Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, September 16). Apple pay. Wikipedia. Retrieved September 17, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pay. 

Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, September 16). PayPal. Wikipedia. Retrieved September 17, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal.