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Comment by harryh | Hacker News Reader

What happens when I buy a bond and then I accidentally lose my private key?

I don't think JP Morgan is going to give you the private key to your bond. This is a slightly more decentralized version of holding securities in street name. It's less painful than direct registration, it's publicly auditable, and faster to settle.

What happens when JP Morgan loses my private key?

I mean, I hear you. I 100% get why people are interested. I just don't see why it has to be a blockchain vs a centralized database that DTCC controls access to.

Databases are notoriously insecure.

Databases store all the money for basically everyone in the developed world. They seem to be working ok.

As opposed to bitcoin, where nobody has ever lost money ever.

Why not? Transactions will still be manually verified of course, but a private key is a pretty good signal that it was valid.

There are safeguards in place that must survive the rigors of external auditors.

And if those systems fail (as all systems will fail at some point) then....my bond is just gone? Poof? Like all those lost bitcoins.

I can't respond to this without violating an NDA. Sorry.

Eh. Bummer. I could totally be wrong about this, and I'm super curious since a lot of smart people seem to be into it. I just don't see the reasoning behind things.

Thanks for sharing what you could!

> I'm super curious since a lot of smart people seem to be into it.

Because trendy buzz.

There are a lot of reasons that bearer bonds are no longer issued in most jurisdictions. This is one of them.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearer_bond

It's not anonymous, so you just prove who you are.

To who? It's a de-centralized database.

Yes, but you have to associate identity with your public key. This is for bonds, not buying drugs.

Just transfer bonds into a new key pair. A costly hassle I am sure. Don't lose your key!

Yes, yes. To who am I going to prove my identity though? There's no one that, once I've done that, can go into the blockchain and fix things up.

This is why there are so many lost bitcoins that are 100% unrecoverable.

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