Signature based trust system ending after 300 years  

In some interesting news today, Britain is joining the exodus from checks. Slated to stop in 2018, the system whereby you transfer money between bank accounts by putting some ink on some paper is a study in trust.

Amazingly, this easily violated system has lasted three centuries. As new technologies and techniques made it easier and faster to forge, the banks that gained so much value from checking have used governments to prop up the system. By making and enforcing laws that have very harsh penalties, as well as massive marketing campaigns, the banks and their pet governments have persuaded (and forced) people to trust a system that is inherently untrustworthy.

Imagine trying to sell the idea of checking to a modern business, without the current laws and cultural assumptions:

businessman: So you want me to accept pieces of paper as money, and people can put any amount they want on the paper?
bankster: Right!
businessman: And I have no way of knowing if they actually have that much money?
bankster: Correct.
businessman: And I have no way of knowing if the bank account listed on the piece of paper is one they have the right to use until I try to put the paper into my bank, who might tell me days later that it is a fraud?
bankster: Well, yes.
businessman: And their signature, which I have probably never seen before and have no real way of validating and which is easily forged is the "verification" that the bank uses to make sure no one is cheating?
bankster: Well, we just have to trust people.
businessman: HAHAHAHAHA!!!
bankster: And the government will make everyone think they can trust it.
businessman: <ROFL> Oh man, I guess I really did need a good laugh this morning.
bankster: I'm serious!
businessman: Don't call us, we'll call you <quietly>yeah, right<quietly>

Silly, right?

Shire Silver applauds and awaits the end of the paper check.