When writing this comment I originally wanted to make an analogy to law and the reason the law is (usually) followed isn’t because “law” is a magic word that gi

When writing this comment I originally wanted to make an analogy to law and the reason the law is (usually) followed isn’t because “law” is a magic word that gives the text magical powers but because if you don’t follow it, some goons with guns will eventually show up and convince you to follow it. In this case, the goons are that “trusted party” that’s meant to reconcile the state of the paper with the state of the real world. We know it’s not perfect which is why we have various levels of redundancy and oversight, and while it’s still not 100% reliable it usually works quite well. However I’m not sure what you mean to signify with your paper vs stone tablet comparison. Unlike blockchains, paper doesn’t claim to do anything magical compared to stone tablets - it’s still just a medium of storing written text.