The "chain" isn't a Thing that somehow changes the nature of whatever it records though, right? If I ran a bank and wrote people's balances on bamboo, and execu

The "chain" isn't a Thing that somehow changes the nature of whatever it records though, right? If I ran a bank and wrote people's balances on bamboo, and executed transfers via carrier pigeons, that wouldn't suddenly change the currency, right? The government backing also seems beside the point - even for non-FDIC-insured entities, holding someone's money to give it back to them later makes their money become backed by you, but doesn't change the currency.