An NFT without a blockchain
This raises a very interesting point. Much of the problems with blockchain&#x27;s, i.e. proof-of-work, on-chain transactions needing everyone to know about them, are because there are no central authorities baked into the design that can behave in opaque ways.<p>Yet, centralized services still spring up to handle transactions: OpenSea for NFTs, Coinbase for cryptocoin transactions. These services in turn still rely on a sea of middlemen which take a cut, or &quot;gas&quot; fees for their work. If you are transfering coins among several services then there are fees for each transfer, etc.<p>So tying this back to present day, mainstream, finance: When you run a credit card there are several middlemen between the cardholder and the merchant. This diagram (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;merchantcostconsulting.com&#x2F;lower-credit-card-processing-fees&#x2F;understanding-credit-card-networks&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;merchantcostconsulting.com&#x2F;lower-credit-card-process...</a>) suggests 4 intermediaries, each taking a cut.<p>In theory each of these provides a service - but how many are required in modern times? Let&#x27;s say that the cardholder just wants to pay the merchant, and the merchant wants to maximize their take. In cryptocoin-land you would have a direct transaction with the merchant. This works because you cannot double pay. In trad-finance land you need to have your issuing bank state that you have the funds. Credit cards provide a level of abstraction where the merchant gets paid now and the credit card provider collects later. This all happens live.<p>What if instead you had a system where:<p>- Card holder uses a computing device (say a smartphone with TPM) and that cryptographically signs transactions to say that the card holder requested this.<p>- Issuing bank gives the card holder a signed certificate each week saying: This is account holder #XXXXX. They can purchase up to $YYY at one time.<p>- Card holder provides the cert to merchant upon wanting to make a purchase along with a signed receipt indicating a transfer of money. You could add a pin to be entered on each transaction as 2FA.<p>- Merchant gets this crypto-receipt and has some reasonable amount of time to turn it in to the issuing bank (say 1 month) and collect payment.<p>- Issuing bank gives merchant money for receipt and charges account holder. Account holder does normal procedures of paying for things, complaining about charges, etc.<p>This scheme has a few advantages and feels very similar to how I sort of understand credit cards work in Europe.<p>- Issuing bank can get a larger take since there are less intermediaries.<p>- Merchant can get a larger take since there can be less fees.<p>- There is a reasonable assurance of lack of fraud due to 2FA, and TPM storing signing key.<p>- This does not require live internet access nor live responses.<p>Why is there nothing like this? What are the drawbacks? Tying back to the parent discussion, is this a reasonable optimization on top of crypocurrency as it exists today?