[joncrocks]

It's a bit more like 'possession is 9/10 of the law'.

The "not your keys, not your coins" is more the fact that someone else holding your stuff happen to them and your stuff goes away. Or they never had it to start with. i.e. Counterparty risk.

`Cash` doesn't inherently have any mechanism for enforcing rights either. The difference is that real-world identities are easier to establish in situations where cash transactions go awry.

[lottin]

Indeed, physical cash has similar limitations. Everybody understands that it's inherently unsafe. Yet crypto-currency advocates are advising people to keep a large part of their savings as an asset that's even less safe than physical currency, which is absolutely crazy.

[FireBeyond]

> It's a bit more like 'possession is 9/10 of the law'.

Common mistake. The original saying was "Possession is nine points of the law". Over time it's been bastardized to "nine-tenths".