P2P Google Bucks Mentioned By Google's Schmidt

Upon being asked a question about mobile payment – or being pitched an idea about doing peer to peer payments, as it was, Google's Eric Schmidt responded with a treat of a forgone technology not oft, if ever, spoken about in public. It's Google Bucks, and though it was only tested internally apparently, it was a peer-to-peer payment system that may well have been ready to take place in the real world had such a technology been rendered essentially useless via laws restricting payment in such ways.

A fellow from Germany stood up and pitched a service wrapped in a question about what Google was currently doing with mobile payment, summoning giggles from the crowd simply because such a comment is not often made at a Q and A session such as this. Schmidt responded not with a push-off, but an excellent rebuttal which went like this:

"There's an issue with peer to peer money, that being that it's illegal. Other than that it's a great idea. There are some issues with peer to peer money. In most places it's illegal. Governments don't trust it because of issues with money laundering. There were various proposals for our own Google currency – Google Bucks. But we didn't want to get into it due to these issues." – Schmidt

We'll be continuing to cover this technology should it pop up again, of course, and meanwhile keep watching the SlashGear main news feed today for more Google news and Mobile World Congress 2012 news!