Rand Paul: What If Companies Could Create Their Own Currencies?

When he travels to Silicon Valley, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has a libertarian posse. PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel sunk seven figures into a super-PAC that supported the 2012 presidential bid of Paul's father, Ron. In visits to tech companies, Paul has explained why the open-minded folks who become technologists should reject the leviathan grip of government. Last summer, Paul was the star of the conservative Lincoln Labs "2014: Reboot" conference, where he mused about how the crypto-currency Bitcoin could break up the money monopoly. It could lead to "Wal-Mart Coin, K-Mart Coin," of companies building their own currencies, tied to stocks.

"Because I’m sort of a believer in currency having value," Paul said in a separate interview, "if you’re going to create a currency, have it backed up by—you know, Hayek used to talk about a basket of commodities? You could have a basket of stocks, and have some exchangeability, because it’s hard for people like me who are a bit tangible. But you could have an average of stocks. I’m wondering if that’s the next permutation."