It was Szabo who went furthest into the history and philosophy of the topic. With a degree in computer science and a doctorate in law, he became fascinated by the history of money, writing a lengthy essay on the subject, in which he explored a throwaway remark by the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins that ‘money is a formal token of delayed reciprocal altruism’ – or money makes it possible to pay back favours indirectly and at any time.
