Climateer linked to a post by Phil Pearlman here which pondered the merits of Google launching its own currency.
The logic is basically that Google, being an experimental tech company is in a better position to launch a private currency than a bunch of anonymous coders.
But the piece misses a fundamental point. Google already has a currency in issuance. That currency is Google equity.
When you swap national currency for an investment in a particular corporate stock you are effectively swapping an investment in the general wealth of the country, which is taxable by the state, for concentrated exposure to a particular corporate (i.e one very small segment of that economy). You are doing that because you think that stock will outperform the general performance of the country.
That corporate then ends up holding your dollars like central banks of foreign countries hold foreign reserves. The corporate — just like foreign central banks — can choose to invest those reserves in dollar denominated securities and basically receive dollar interest (aka Paypal) in which case its currency is effectively pegged to the dollar, or it can spend (invest) those reserves on tools, infrastructure, know-how and resources that allow it to deliver ever more value/output/return to holders of its equity....
Dizzynomics
Corporate currencies are equity
Izabella Kaminska
