Sure - but a lot of systems have a safety net of test environments and change control, and a safety net as they can revert changes, and a safety net as they can restore backups, and a safety net as they can ask counterparties nicely to help undo things, and a safety net through the legal system, and a safety net of insurance.

The normal banking industry is operating chainsaws very cautiously, with a lot of safety equipment and training. The cryptocurrency industry may be operating the same chainsaws, but they're trying to juggle them naked, on a floor slick with the blood of their peers.

There's no reasons those safety nets can't exist here. Test nets, and insurance can take on those resposnibilities with the same effect.

> Same thing would have happened if they had put all that cash on a boat, and accidentally sunk it.

Are you saying that it is impossible to get valuables out of a boat that sunk?

"Treasure trove of gold and jewels recovered from a 366-year-old shipwreck in the Bahamas"

https://www.livescience.com/bahamas-shipwreck-gold-jewels

I'm saying cash dissolves in water.

If you'd prefer you can throw your gold bullion into a volcano, or perhaps mix it in with radioactive fuel.

This is a deeply stupid analogy, because as everyone is pointing out .. why would you do that? Why would you choose to build a system in which this is a risk, when it's not actually imposed by the laws of nature?

But there were a few instances in WW2 where large amounts of value had to be transferred by boat, and in at least one case sunk by enemy action. HMS Edinburgh: https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/hms-edinbu...

Sure. But there is no reason to put all your cash on a boat, so nobody does it (or it's because the risks outweighs the benefits).

Cash, being paper, would probably float.... Sadly for oceanic finance transfers, it's mostly gold, and that stuff sinks fast.

But we moved away from moving currency in sinkable boats hundreds of years ago. Error in plain old finance today can often be fixed. Do we need to regress back to antiquity?