Anyone who’s been involved with crypto for more than a month or tried to help people to sign their email with PGP knows how often people lose their keys even when access to fungible cryptocurrencies is on the line.

So what happens to the shoes I want to sell if I lose my private key or it is stolen (probably more likely than someone stealing the physical shoes)?

Do I simply lose the right to sell? Or do I go to jail for not being able to prove that I own them? What if the person I’m selling the shoes to believes me or doesn’t care?

What is the real cost of stolen or fraudulent goods to the shoe market in percentage terms? Does it justify all of these extra transaction costs being layered on the honest shoe traders?

Are there probably good reasons that the idiom, “possession is 9/10ths of the law” is so common?