[mehrdadn]

>> "Default trust" actually works in our economy. And because of that, friction can be low and things Just Work.

> Does it though? I think there's a reason we've stopped accepting cheques

That's a very specific issue but this is a pretty general fact. With respect to checks, people still write and accept checks, we just have more convenient payment methods. Also checks are still the easy way to transfer large sums of money at many banks. More generally though, just look at how much can be done with a signature under penalty of perjury, and how relatively rarely these are forged. The trust-based system really works decently well in the US.