Just some thoughts, for the time being.  Nothing substantive, yet.

People use banks not primarily to store money, or to earn interest on their deposits (most people earn an alarmingly paltry return on checkable deposits and savings accounts alike) but to facilitate the tendering and receipt of payments. Many methods of saving/investing are superior to deposit accounts: short-term CDs, mutual funds, diversified and staggered interpersonal loans granted on a P2P site like prosper.com, etc.

The ease with which one can now effect the purchase of a good, immediately and across the continent (or the globe!), is a valuable service in its own right.

Depositors of free fractional-reserve banks have a right (subject to some qualifications/restrictions) to redeem their deposits in base money.  What, if any, would be the criteria for holding bankers personally liable for violating their fiduciary obligations in the event of insolvency?

In what medium are fractional-reserve bank loans denominated and how are they to be repaid? Are borrowers required to repay in base money?  If not, where does the interest portion of their payments come from?

My hunch is that nobody, anywhere, ever, has had an interest-bearing deposit account that, for any chosen time interval, has outperformed durable commodities. (I’ll admit that I’m shooting from the hip with this argument.)

In an advanced economy, monetary evolution results in more-or-less widespread use of fiduciary media.

Why does a fractional reserve bank have to loan out 90% of your money in order to pay you 0.25% interest?

Do you really think that you’re not getting totally fucked by inflation?  Really?