2013-05-11 Wall St. Cheat Sheet: Should Google Launch Its Own Currency?

[n8rwJeTt8TrrLKPa55eU]

The short answer to the question is: probably not.

Phil Pearlman, executive director of StockTwits and a partner at Social Leverage, wrote a blog post in April speculating on the meteoric rise of Bitcoin, a virtual currency, and “the small group of geniuses” at Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) that must be paying close attention to it. While there’s little doubt that Bitcoin has registered on Google’s radar in some way, shape, or form, it seems unlikely — although certainly not outside the realm of possibility — that the company would take the mantle of currency stewardship upon itself.

http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/should-google-launch-its-own-currency.html/?a=viewall

[TraderTimm]

It would be more likely for them to integrate Bitcoin into some kind of payments/clearing than to issue their own flavor of blockchain. Hell, they could section off part of their datacenters for ASIC clusters to protect their investment by holding a percentage of the total hashing power.

[tutkarz]

If any company would create cryptocurrency it would be the same as paypal. I see no point in this. The phenomena of bitcoin is its open source and no government or other control.

[Gordonium]

If any company would create cryptocurrency it would be the same as paypal. I see no point in this. The phenomena of bitcoin is its open source and no government or other control.

+1

[cypherdoc]

If any company would create cryptocurrency it would be the same as paypal. I see no point in this. The phenomena of bitcoin is its open source and no government or other control.

and google understands the concept of open source.

[jimbobway]

If any company would create cryptocurrency it would be the same as paypal. I see no point in this. The phenomena of bitcoin is its open source and no government or other control.

and google understands the concept of open source.

I see that Google has two options should they decide to create their own crypto currency.  Option one is to create a Bitcoin clone.  Option two is to create a Ripple like clone.  I am guessing they will go for option 2 and create a Ripple clone because they want to be in control of it.  If I was Google I would give everyone with a verified gmail account some gipples.  This is why ripple will fail because tech companies will create centrally controlled currencies.  Decentralized currencies like bitcoin will be here for the long haul.

[BitshireHashaway]

Interesting article. While I would support wholeheartedly google launching its own currency (google is my favorite company), I think there is a higher chance of them building a data center in order to dominate bitcoins especially with more than $1b in bitcoins being released in the future.

[cypherdoc]

[e author=BitshireHathaway link=topic=203236.msg2128521#msg2128521 date=1368423270]
Interesting article. While I would support wholeheartedly google launching its own currency (google is my favorite company), I think there is a higher chance of them building a data center in order to dominate bitcoins especially with more than $1b in bitcoins being released in the future.
[/quote]

What would be interesting to know is which technology company has the largest computer center in the world. Is it Google?

that  company would have first mover advantage that's for sure in Bitcoin

[phatsphere]

I see that Google has two options should they decide to create their own crypto currency. …

Right now, they somehow already support Bitcoin, because bitcoinj is one of those 20% projects. So, right here your statement is already wrong. If they are clever, they wait and see for now – and prepare for a mixed strategy in the next years. They can simultaneously go more than one way and see what sticks over time. It's also not Gmail, but the Android platform they'll most likely use to push their form of digital payment system … that way they reach many more customers and it's independent of such an ancient technology like email.

[kjlimo]

If any company would create cryptocurrency it would be the same as paypal. I see no point in this. The phenomena of bitcoin is its open source and no government or other control.

and google understands the concept of open source.

They can simply decide to start recognizing/supporting a currency and that would be about the same as them starting their own, except that it would already come with a userbase.

That would likely have the highest chance for success?  Rather than starting from scratch like the alts; although, I think they would have success that way, too.

Just not sure if that would be a logical addition to their business model, but I'm sure they have someone analyzing it.