At the end of the day, the communication system was being used to make promises, based on an assumption that all the institutions involved in the transfer had t

At the end of the day, the communication system was being used to make promises, based on an assumption that all the institutions involved in the transfer had the incentive and means to keep their promises. The latter is also being drastically undermined at the moment, making the emergence of an alternative ad-hoc "IOU" system less likely.