“The preceding observations can be directly applied to the case of electronic money. An economic good that is defined entirely in terms of bits and bytes is unlikely ever to be produced spontaneously on a free market, for the very same reasons that we just discussed in the case of paper money. And despite the dedicated efforts of various individuals and asso-ciations, no such money has in fact ever been produced since the creation of the Internet made electronic payments possi-ble. At present, only government money has been produced in electronic form; and as in the case of paper money, governments could do this only because they have the possibility to suppress competition.

On the free market, the new information technologies have been unable to create any new monies. They have been able to develop various new instruments to access and transfer money. These new electronic techniques of dealing with money are very efficient and beneficial, but they must not be confused with the creation of electronic money.”

JÖRG GUIDO HÜLSMANN

The Ethics of Money Production

2008