As a self-professed libertarian and follower of the Austrian school of economic thought, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) has a lot in common with the central bank skeptics who helped get Bitcoin off the ground.

Which is why Fortune's Tory Nemyer asked the senator about the cryptocurrency in a new interview.

While he likes it in principle, Paul said there's one thing he would change about it to align it more with those values: have it backed by something of value, in this case, he proposes, stocks.

Here's the full quote:

I was looking more at it until that recent thing [sic]. And actually my theory, if I were setting it up, I'd make it exchangeable for stock. And then it'd have real value. And I'd have it pegged, and I'd have a basket of 10 big retailers… I think it would work, but I think, because I'm sort of a believer in currency having value, 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."

It's true that Bitcoin is currently backed by the full faith and credit of ... whatever Bitcoin service you're using, so in theory the idea is not without merit. But the process for making this happen would undoubtedly be arduous from a technical and regulatory standpoint.

Something to consider.

Check out the full interview here >