Quote from: Keyboard-Mash on May 23, 2014, 05:02:34 AM

If Monero was accepted as having similar characteristics to gold, would you see these promises manifesting outside of the blockchain, or as a part of it? I could send someone a certain amount of gold, or I could issue a promise that their gold (ex: Monero) will be ready to be placed in their hands on demand. I've imagined an infrastructure, like banking, that can be built on top of Monero .. specifically utilizing the tx_extra field (or perhaps not, as it may be better utilized in things like recurring monthly payments). I'm unaware of how this could come together, or if "banking" is even the correct word for what I'm trying to describe. Your mentioning of certificate issuance indicates, to me, that you are of a similar opinion.

The great thing about crypto is that there are no need for promises. Cryptocoins have proof (Proof of Work). That's far better than any promise. Proof of work is what makes gold (or any commodity money in existense for that matter) valuable. Excluding fiat, all money from the beginning of time had proof of work in some form or another. The mere presence of gold is proof that someone, somewhere, put it real effort to obtain it. Proof of work is the most basic form of intrinsic value.

A certificate is a promise that such proof exists. As mentioned upthread, this was important for trade, as paper money (promise) is much easier to carry and store than heavy gold coins (proof). However, as I already stated, promises can, and will be, abused:

Quote from: Johnny Mnemonic on May 14, 2014, 07:57:44 PM

Gold certificates are actually a great example of deteriorating value to achieve volume. Goldsmiths learned very early that they could print many more certificates than they actually had gold to back up, because such few people ever bothered to redeem them. This kind of debasement was an early form of fractional reserve banking, and one of the first steps toward ultra-high volume trade.

Again though, such a promise is unnecessary in crypto, as the proof is right there in the coin.