Blockchain - Back to the roots

People were always looking for safe places to set valuable things aside for later usage.

A solid chest with a sturdy lock and a non trivial key was for quite some time considered a good choice (compared e.g. to pillows and alike).

At some point more sophisticated safes replaced the chests. Often such safes were shared and banks started to offer safe keeping services. 

The bank account reflecting the deposited values did replace the secure place; the account number became the key to gain access to the money when required. All was quite local, hence the bank did know its clients. It may still feel like putting the money away on your own safe place when sending money to your bank account. But in reality the situation is slightly different. People perform some form of peer to peer lending with the bank. They get promise of repay from the bank under bilaterally agreed conditions. Some interest but also fees are typically part of these conditions.

If public blockchains get widely adopted, then the situation becomes more transparent again. Entries on the blocks of the blockchain document and the possession of cryptographic keys prove ownership. In some way the situation is quite similar to the chest at the beginning - the distributed ledger has replaced the chest and the cryptographic key the physical.

The key holder can exchange the money against other goods directly without any intermediary. This includes lending it to a party he trusts against a promise made by the credit taker - he will however never share or handover his his private key.The actual lending agreement with the conditions could become part of a smart contract which is also governed by the blockchains distributed trust.. 

The blockchain is sufficient for all who just want safe keeping (putting goods aside). They need - very similar to the chest - make sure that their private keys are well protected. Owners  who expect a return can lend their money to interested parties competing in the market or they can exchange it for other values which promise to offer a better return..