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This is similar to the "why are banks allowed to print money by issuing loans and I'm not?" confusion that sometimes goes around. Your internal balances are on

This is similar to the "why are banks allowed to print money by issuing loans and I'm not?" confusion that sometimes goes around. Your internal balances are only good so long as the rest of the system trusts you. Magic up some fake balances and good luck getting the rest of the world to continue to take you seriously. "You want us to believe you've actually got that 100 Trillion? Show us?" How would this Russian bank spend these trillions? They can't cash out, because they don't actually have that much paper USD. Transfer it to another bank somewhere more reputable? How are you going to make those transfers clear? I invite you to open your own bank and print yourself ten million dollars out of the air. Good luck converting that number to cash or transferring it to anywhere else!

13415 5y ago
I'm sure you're right in principle but have to point out that ten million dollars is peanuts, people have loaned more than that and not given back.
- majormajor 5y ago
  You mean that "real" banks have issued loans of 10M+ and not gotten repayed by people/companies who went bankrupt or such? Certainly! Banks do their due diligence for a reason, but they don't always get it right. And a certain amount of "bad loans" is expected anyway. Part of the fees and interest they charge is to cover that. But that's very different than simply printing yourself 10 million dollars. Or even just ten dollars. It's also different from you starting a bank and saying you loan me 10 million dollars. I now have a statement saying I have 10M in your bank. I try to take that to a "real" bank to cash out. It's not gonna work.
  - andrewaylett 5y ago
    Unless, it seems, you call them "Tether". Which is one of the reasons why I remain unconvinced that Blockchain _actually_ enables a financial system requiring less trust than the current mainstream financial system.

13415 5y ago

I'm sure you're right in principle but have to point out that ten million dollars is peanuts, people have loaned more than that and not given back.

majormajor 5y ago
You mean that "real" banks have issued loans of 10M+ and not gotten repayed by people/companies who went bankrupt or such? Certainly! Banks do their due diligence for a reason, but they don't always get it right. And a certain amount of "bad loans" is expected anyway. Part of the fees and interest they charge is to cover that. But that's very different than simply printing yourself 10 million dollars. Or even just ten dollars. It's also different from you starting a bank and saying you loan me 10 million dollars. I now have a statement saying I have 10M in your bank. I try to take that to a "real" bank to cash out. It's not gonna work.
- andrewaylett 5y ago
  Unless, it seems, you call them "Tether". Which is one of the reasons why I remain unconvinced that Blockchain _actually_ enables a financial system requiring less trust than the current mainstream financial system.