If the problem of small change led economists to understand how to run a system of tokenmoney, did some of the greatest economists of the early 20th century learn the wrong lesson from the system's success?
Tweaking Microsoft, Schmidt has moved to snap up online companies that can offer desktop-style applications for free, posing at least a token threat to Microsoft's money-spewing Office suite.
History demonstrates that the soundness of the token is directly proportional to the difficulty of its creation, as this helps ensure stability of the money supply.
The moral claim real money places on society on behalf of its bearer comes not from the intrinsic value of the token but from the fact that the bearer had previously produced some good or service deemed valuable by others.