For example, a few moments ago, one person gave another $61,182. In the Bitcoin system, this was recorded as an increment of 1 to the number associated with the first person's address and a decrement of 1 to the number associated with the second person's address. Initially, people gave each other $0.001 for the same numerical update (+1/-1). Such updates (positive ones) occure also when someone spends energy to maintain a decentralized database that stores these updates (blockchain).

Obviously, these numerical updates do not represent transfers of an asset, unlike with shares and fiat currencies. That's simply because a person whose number has increased does not, as a result, have the ability to realize greater benefit from a resource within the cryptocurrency system. In the case of shares or fiat currencies, such a person would be able to receive a larger dividend from a company or more goods, services, or labor from bank debtors.

From this, only one conclusion follows: a blockchain doesn't store the record of transactions. For a transaction to occur and be recorded, there must be an asset that changes owners. However, within cryptocurrency systems, no assets are involved—only records of changes in numbers associated with digital addresses.