In barter systems, the number of unique trading pairs grows combinatorially: with 5 products there are 10 trading pairs, with 20 products there are 190 trading pairs, and with 100 products there are 4,950 trading pairs, making direct barter inefficient at scale.

factualpending

Speaker

Len Alden

Evidence Quote

when this barter system scales to an economy that produces five different products it results in 10 unique trading pairs with 20 different products there are 190 trading Pairs and with 100 different products that number of trading pairs grows to 4,950

Source

How Money & Banking Work (& why they're broken today) - Lyn AldenLyn Alden Media
Created: 8/12/2026, 2:29:46 AM

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