# Last edited on 2017-11-04 21:02:29 by jstolfi
# NOT SENT

Platinum itself cannot be sent through the internet, but there exist [platinum electronic traded funds](http://www.investopedia.com/etfs/top-platinum-etfs/).  Their shares represent actual platinum held by the issuing company, and can be traded on stock exchanges from anywhere in the world.  So a guy in Memphis *can* sell 'platinum' to a guy in Mumbay via the internet, practically instantaneously.

That is in fact quite similar to how a bitcoin transaction works.  The bitcoins are not sent through the internet.  (In fact, they don't exist, in any sense of the world.)  Instead there is a ledger that says how many bitcoins (but not *which* bitcoins) are assigned to each account (address).  The sender just tells the miners to update that ledger, by subtracting X from his account and adding X to the receiver's account.  Which is what happens when ETF shares are traded.  

Bitcoin's only advantage over other payment methods is that it was supposed to be decentralized.  That is hardly true now, with 75% of the hashpower in the hands of half a dozen pools in China.  It is still used by criminals, not because it is decentralized (which it isn't), but because the miners so far have totally ignored KYC/AML laws.