[teraflop]

The hash-tree scheme described here would work equally well for non-Bitcoin currencies, if I'm understanding it correctly. The only thing missing is the ability to prove ownership of the actual funds backing that tree. So what you're really complaining about is that there are no banks that offer digitally-signed attestation of account balances.

[jnbiche]

>no banks that offer digitally-signed attestation of account balances.

Why is this? Seriously, that alone could prevent so much fraud and misuse of funds. Every public company could have a digitally-signed bank balance, updated in real time.

[vbuterin]

Because then any guy with a laptop and coding skills could use the API to set up almost any kind of fiat currency-based money services or currency exchange business, and we can't have people doing that without million-dollar MSB/MT licenses!