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Comment by andy800 | Hacker News Reader

How does a bank ensure you can withdraw your money? Surely the teller can just raid your account and give your cash to his/her friends.

I don't think anything can 100% prevent illegal activity, but eventually someone who abuses their power will get caught and be removed.

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I think the posters you're responding to are asking the following: what does an NFT provide here that any other identifier doesn't? They could just say you need to have an ID with your name on it. Is the point that would not be private? And so they could fix that by just sending you a long random string and forcing you to show that? But then is the issue in that case that that string could get duplicated multiple times and so if you had an NFT you could essentially guarantee that this private identifier is simultaneously transferable, but still effectively unique?

These are legitimate questions and I'm just trying to understand.

The OP said NFTs were "unenforceable", I disagreed. That was the extent of it -- I didn't claim they do anything another identifier can't. A physical ticket is enforceable, isn't it?

The location of the NFTs (what wallets they reside in) is public knowledge on the blockchain. The enforcement part comes by proving you are the owner of one of those wallets. Can someone steal your ID, or your phone with a wallet on it, sure, but as I said earlier, nothing is 100% resistant to illegal activity.

I'm pretty sure that the OP didn't mean literally unenforceable, but more that an NFT is no more enforceable than any other mechanism. In the end someone has to stand there and verify it and make a decision. They could use any number of methods that (may) be equally as good. In other words, why would one choose NFTs over any other method?

Anyway I don't want to get into that. I would still appreciate answers to my questions (here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29363960 ) in case someone here is feeling charitable.

The teller has a camera over his/her shoulder, and [at least here] to extract the money you must go with your credit card and type a PIN, so the computer can verify it's you.

Banks hate competition, so they ensure the teller is not stealing money from the client.

Bouncers are watched by cameras too. And if they don't allow in legitimate ticket holders (unless incapacitated, abusive, etc), they get removed from the job. The owner of the nightclub can't risk his business being sued, or fined, or losing business from event promoters who receive multiple complaints of denied entry at that specific venue.

The credit card/PIN combo sounds great until someone walks into the bank and says their wallet was stolen, or even, that you died last week and presents a forged death certificate. The point is every system has a failure point if someone is determined enough. NFTs can prove digital presence in a specific wallet, they can't actually prove who owns the wallet. No crypto asset can do that, which is why many people have gotten tricked into giving up their private key or recovery phrase.

Here in Argentina, if you go to the bank and claim your wallet was stolen, they will not give you the money. IIRC you must call the bank, and they will send a week later a replacement of your card, and another day a new PIN written in paper that you must change in a ATM, so the thief must intercept both. Anyway, the PIN for the ATM is different of the PIN for the teller, so it's not so easy. And the teller will ask also for the national ID card, that is also difficult to forge.

In case of death, the bank ask for some papers signed by a judge that says you are the official heir, and they will check in the national death registry. No way they will believe in a piece of paper.

I don't claim it's impossible, but in both cases there is a lot of paperwork to ensure it's difficult.

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