Kocher redesigned the system to ensure that seller and buyer are working off of the strongest encryption possible, and that if someone interferes, the sale fails.

FORBES: Issues & Ideas

If Bersani fails, Napolitano could tap someone else, a fresh face to politics, like newly chosen Senate President Piero Grasso, a widely respected former anti-Mafia prosecutor, said D'Alimonte, a professor at LUISS university in Rome.

NPR: Italy's Bersani Tapped To Form New Government

For the subcomandante, though, it would certainly help to have someone to blame if his mission to persuade Congress fails.

ECONOMIST: Subcomandante Marcos: the Mexican grand tour | The

But if al-Maliki's Cabinet fails to gain support, someone else will be appointed to form a government, Pachachi said.

CNN: Three U.S. troops killed by roadside bomb

In other words, unlike someone who wears a belt and suspenders, if one structural member fails, there is no redundant system to prevent collapse.

FORBES: One of Every Four U.S. Bridges Is 'Broken'