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A comment on A Major Coinbase Milestone: 1 Million Consumer Wallets. Parent comment

Re:A Major Coinbase Milestone: 1 Million Consumer Wallets by thinkcomp on Thursday February 27, 2014 @01:25PM (#7313915)
Financial accounts. One person can have many bank accounts. I would guess they're using the word "wallet" to avoid regulatory scrutiny that might be applied to financial accounts. People might feel like "wallets" can get lost or stolen. "Accounts" shouldn't.

These are accounts.

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Re:A Major Coinbase Milestone: 1 Million Consumer Wallets by JoshTriplett on Thursday February 27, 2014 @01:32PM (#7313959)
> People might feel like "wallets" can get lost or stolen. "Accounts" shouldn't.

That's exactly why the term "wallet" should be used. This is cash, and should be treated accordingly and thought of accordingly. Terms like "wallet" help people develop a reasonable mental model that fits reality.

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Re:A Major Coinbase Milestone: 1 Million Consumer Wallets by dragonwriter on Thursday February 27, 2014 @02:43PM (#7314470)
> That's exactly why the term "wallet" should be used. This is cash, and should be treated accordingly and thought of accordingly.

Cash held by someone else on your behalf is an account (even if it is physically stored in their wallet).

So, sure, bitcoins are in a sense analogous to physical cash, and bitcoin wallets are in a sense analogous to physical wallets full of cash -- but some third party business who keeps bitcoins in their own wallets and contracts with you to transmit them according to your instruction is providing you with an account, not a wallet.

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