Conceptually, there is an important distinction between "mechanism" and "policy." There are many, many mechanisms for handling legal/technical control/ownership

Conceptually, there is an important distinction between "mechanism" and "policy." There are many, many mechanisms for handling legal/technical control/ownership/system of record/etc. This is a problem with solutions that date to the beginning of civilization. Whether mechanism is pieces of paper in a vault or replicated records in different jurisdictions or hashes on blockchain matters only on the margins. Policy is the hard part. What happens when mechanism fails or when the parties relying on the mechanism have disagreements about the implications. When there is disagreement about which blockchain is authoritative. (Sometimes blockchain people call this "governance" and wish to solve it also with mechanism.) Anyway, there are good reasons for human organizations to act in a policy/governance capacity. One may think of any particular organization as flawed, which is no doubt true. But in any context where people depend on the mechanism working "correctly" people are the only participants who can provide that assurance.