

The problem is that there is nothing meaningful you can exchange this currency for. The Fediverse is fundamentally designed to allow anyone to start a server. There is no meaningful way to reward someone with anything of value except the satisfaction of having helped grow the instance they are supporting. There is no good way to boost someone without manipulating the vote count or changing the protocol itself. Many apps already offer customizability while simultaneously being free as in free beer and free as in free speech. The main reason many people move to the Fediverse is to escape an internet where everything is “enshittified,” and most Fediverse users wouldn’t want to shift to a proprietary model.



If I understand the model you proposed correctly, it basically consists of making a payment to someone (whether an instance or a central authority), obtaining tokens in exchange, giving tokens to a content creator, and the content creator exchanging them to get their money back.
Having a central authority wouldn’t work because it goes against the principles of the Fediverse and most users would prefer that there not be a single point of failure. Having an instance exchange money for tokens wouldn’t work because there is no scarcity of tokens and no guarantee that an instance honours a request.
This method could instead be replaced by content creators adding links to receive payments with people giving money to them directly.