[ANN] BTCJam - Peer to Peer Bitcoin Lending

[owlcatz]

I think BTCJam is really cool and I generally love P2P lending. So I did a simple experiment. I collected historical data from BTCjam and other Bitcoin P2P lending sites. Then I ran a simple simulation, where I invested into each loan on the platform and observed the outcome. Needless to say, I ended up with a huge loss.

How does that make any sense? You think it's cool... But, you ended up with a huge loss?

What did you do, invest in btcjam on like 3 shitty loans and they all defaulted?

 

If you're quoting me, at least learn the read. I said I ran a simulation. I did not invest into any loans personally, I just gathered data and a simulated investing and calculated how much I would have earned if had invested. You can do this, because for historical loans, you already know the outcome, that is whether the borrower ended up repaying or he defaulted.

Basically, when you run a simulation and invest into all historical loans, you must end up with a positive return. This validates the fact that BTC Jam does credit scoring properly, because the interest rates compensate for the probability of default. The fact that my simulation ended up with a huge loss means that BTC credit scoring does not work.

In addition, I think the idea is cool, but the implementation does not work. Is it clearer now?

Ah, I apologize, I was obviously not reading it that way, I was pretty tired, sorry! 

[b-trading]

why i can't withdraw my btc on my account on btcjam...its always said withdraw error...i have been try for many many time to withdraw but it is always go to error withdraw axplanation on that btcjam site...please i need my btc back to my wallet

[bizzyb]

Loving the experience as an investor on BTCJam...took me a while to take the plunge, but I'm glad I did
I hope the financial rewards will match the philosophical ones!

[TYPEcoin]

There are some restricted country?I can't verified my account,can you help me please.

[nagasakiWA]

How can I give a loan on btcjam?Is safe to give loans?what is the min and max amount for add funds?

[owlcatz]

How can I give a loan on btcjam?Is safe to give loans?what is the min and max amount for add funds?

By creating an account as "Investor"... Be sure to spread your investment around as much as possible, as a lot of people default on loans on btcjam, so the more you spread out your investments, the less risk you have. (Speaking as someone who lost BTC there, due to just 3 people who defaulted on loans, and they "were" reputable, but then either became scammers or just disappeared).

[art4free81]

what the F*CK is going on with your site??? i cant even withdraw my money...
 

[evaldas.z]

Problems when try submid a load receive server error 500 ?
Write support but no answer ? How resolve this ?

[nickaizoku]

As a new account... is it that easy to make a loan? I just registered and i can loan up to 30k?? How can that happen just as new user.

[owlcatz]

As a new account... is it that easy to make a loan? I just registered and i can loan up to 30k?? How can that happen just as new user.

Because you are the one at risk of losing your coins - not the people you will be loaning them too.

If you were the one requesting the loan, then yes, you would need to submit as much info as possible. 

[nokati]

how can someone with any kind of common sense use this site to fund a loan. I mean WTF?!!!!
How can someone with any kind of common sense submit all his sensitive private data to request a loan? I mean WTF??!!!!

[Devon1]

I have been a member of BTCJam 1 week, so this is a review of the process of joining, the document review process, and my interactions with support.  I created my 1st loan today and it is in the review process.  I will update this thread after it is approved, I am funded, and pay back the loan.  I will update this with additional information and reviews about my investing on the site, and any overall observations and experiences as a borrower and investor.  I have seen many lopsided reviews for the site either overly negative or positive, so I thought a more realistic point of view would aid some.

Additionally, I have read MANY past loans, and most of the current loans waiting for funding so I could learn more about the type of loans, interest percentages, and which borrowers repay loans and what type default (not that there is any guarantee, but there are definitely trends, EXAMPLE: There are plenty of legitimate loans for trading and mining, but I would expect these type of loans to show some type of business plan, and past gains if it is not a new venture.  I would also want to see detailed plans.  Nothing would deter me more than 1 sentence loan request for mining or trading as those are very generic categories that scammers could use, since many real loans are in those categories.  Most scammers are not creative or they would have a real job so they use common loan categories and very short descriptions.  I have also noticed that most of the loans with detailed information and specifics about their business do not default, where as the ones that do are very vague. I believe from talking to some investors that the people who lose money investing only use the credit rating and not their own judgement, and the profitable ones invest in many credit ratings but have better personal judgement about the loan descriptions, AND ask many questions if they have them and do not invest until the get a satisfactory answer).

Signing up - VERY easy, the site is user friendly, and has detailed descriptions.  There are also YouTube videos by some users who have signed up that someone can watch to get help signing up.

Verification - Some documents were verified within hours of signing up.  Some took a few days.  I grew concerned when my income took several days only because I am impatient, but I imagine they have tons of users and since they check things over it takes time.  Although it took slightly longer than the 1-2 day window, it was not much longer than that so I have nothing to complain about.  I would rather they thoroughly check things than rush them, so although I was impatient, everything went fine.

Support - Some people complain about support being slow.  As I mentioned regarding verification, they probably get TONS of support requests.  I received emails within about 2 days from a support member.  Friday (Today) is the day I submitted my loan about 1pm.  I emailed support to see if anything else was needed, and got an email back within hours unlike the previous response that took a day or 2.  They even asked if they could call me to go over some details, and called within an hour or so of me confirming time to teleconference.  I was VERY impressed that they took the time to personally reach out to me, so although I can see where some people are frustrated that some responses take days, I think they have a good support team that is simply slammed with support tickets so they can get backlogged at times.  I hope as they grow they hire more support, but at the same time I cannot complain about a support ticket that was answered by email and phone within hours, and the one that took a few days was no big deal either since it was just me being impatient wondering what was going on with verification as I wanted it done immediately.  A cpl extra days feels like weeks when you are waiting for something, and I can see where someone who has $ tied up or a problem with a financial matter could become impatient, but overall I think they get back to people as fast as possible and offering great quality support although there can be delays and things can take slightly longer than a user may want, I never experiences massive delays like reported by some users ans was overall very happy with the experience, especially after receiving a personal call to go over my loan and personal details as I thought this shows they really care about their users and actually spend time reviewing each loan (it is not just something they say they do and push them through without looking at them).

Loan - The process was easy to do, I submitted my loan around 12:30pm on a Friday.  It is in the review process.  I would be surprised if it is not live for funding on Monday, Tuesday at the latest.  I will email support if it is not up by Tuesday, as I believe the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

I will update as my loan is funded, any future positive/negative interactions with support, and about the process of getting funded and communicating with any investors. 

So far I made small investments, 1 has paid early, I will update information about investments only once I have invested a very small amount across 100+ handpicked accounts as I believe diversification to be a fair judge of profit loss.  The 2 factors I think are necessary are 1) 100+ investments AND 2) handpicked investments, not just investing in 100+ but picking them based on judgement that includes but is not limited to the rating as I think it is important to go through each business plan personally whether it is an A or D rating as I would not invest in any 1 sentence loan because if they cannot take the time to write a proper business plan I cannot be bothered to fund it.  I don't care if it uses google translate and is in broken English, I just want fleshed out details.

Feel free to ask any questions, as I go through the process I will post here and go through it with you.  I am happy to use this site, as a college graduate who is just getting my career launched, credit can be difficult and I supported bitcoin even before this site as I like the idea of a currency that is for the people and not by a government (decentralized currency).

[Roypack]

I submitted my loan listing 3 days ago and up to now is still in review.

Despite verifying all the information and having a credit score of B- I was asked to send photos of my facility and myself in the facility which I did and the response was they were good and further asked to send the same pictures direct from the camera of phone that took the pictures which I did and from there no response.

I would rate btcjam response 4 out of 10 because how on earth do you ask questions and when answered you take more than 48 hours to respond?

I think you need to improve on your customer care.

I fully support all information verification to edge out scammers.

We are here to support each other and when discrimination is at play we feel that your services are meant to certain regions and people.

Why do I make this suggestion?

You see a listing which its description is only a sentence and a first loan asking much, even the investors question but because the person comes from a certain region his/her listing is accepted while a person from another region with even a better credit score his loan is closed without even an explanation or made to wait for long.

At least improve on those issues.

[Devon1]

I submitted my loan listing 3 days ago and up to now is still in review.

Despite verifying all the information and having a credit score of B- I was asked to send photos of my facility and myself in the facility which I did and the response was they were good and further asked to send the same pictures direct from the camera of phone that took the pictures which I did and from there no response.

I would rate btcjam response 4 out of 10 because how on earth do you ask questions and when answered you take more than 48 hours to respond?

I think you need to improve on your customer care.

I fully support all information verification to edge out scammers.

We are here to support each other and when discrimination is at play we feel that your services are meant to certain regions and people.

Why do I make this suggestion?

You see a listing which its description is only a sentence and a first loan asking much, even the investors question but because the person comes from a certain region his/her listing is accepted while a person from another region with even a better credit score his loan is closed without even an explanation or made to wait for long.

At least improve on those issues.

I agree with you that fast beats sliow, but once you get funded and get what you want would you still give it a 4/10?  I think once you are funded you will be VERY HAPPY!!!

Now I am not arguing with you or saying a slow response is OK, BUT I think they are growing and getting TONS and TONS of new users and loan requests and as they grow they will hire more support.  In the digital world we are used to things being very fast, but it would be VERY normal for a bank to take 1-2 weeks to approve a loan.  If it takes 3-4 days for your loan to go live, that really is not bad in the grand scheme of things, although I agree it is frustrating when you expect it to be done in 1-2 days.

The reason I am OK with it is because I think they are evolving and learning as they go: They called me on the phone, and are taking more time verifying loans.  If they have 100's of loans to review, and the number of loans is exponentially increasing, this takes more and more time.  If they are overrun with scammers, we won't get loans, so doing this process increases the number of quality loans and decreases defaults which makes for many more happy investors and keeps the site going long term.  I want this site to thrive so that borrowers myself can keep using it until I have great FICO scores (and I still will use it then), but for now while I am recovering from graduating in 2008 and not being able to repay student loans since it took me too long to find a good job (the % of income cap on student loans was only introduced recently and I had trouble finding a career type job during the economy sucking since I had to pay 350-400 to stay current I couldn't).  The BTC loan system allows me to get loans since I have a good income now, and it is really cool and really impacts my quality of life to have a way to fund my business!

It TOTALLY sucks that your loan is taking so long and I definitely agree with and feel your frustrations.  All I am saying is that next year or two, when you want another loan for newer equipment, this type of diligence will ensure quality investors are still around and that the site is still around.  I REALLY hope that your loan is listed early next week, if you want to post the link or just msg to me I will invest a small amount (I can't do much until I get a lot of profit from my business since I am paying back a loan now, but every buck or 2 helps!) 

Post back once your loan is listed, they are closed on the weekends but I usually see loans go live Saturday I think they are working extra to get the backlogged loans live.  They never post loans Sunday which is good they deserve a day off.  If they review loans well they will do well and be able to hire new support members.  If your loan takes a week to go live I will be upset for you!  I would bet your loan goes live tomorrow on Saturday, or Monday (I would be absolutely shocked if Tuesday comes and goes and it is not live but I really think it will happen long before that).

I was very impatient about my income verification because it took a few days and I expected 1-2, but I would rather something takes 3.5 days and is done right than is rushed, and I hope they keep growing so they can hire more team members and keep doing what they are doing long term.  It feels like FOREVER when you expect 2 days and it takes 3 or 4, but I assure you that your loan will be live soon and you will be very happy when it does, and I bet this is still way faster than a bank or traditional method.  Once your loan goes live if it is for a small amount it will be funded in a cpl days, so even if your loan took 4 days to go live, you could have the coin on day 6 or 7!

I am not a shill, I was equally impatient and frustrated waiting for my verification of income to be done when it went over 2 days, but once it was all done and my loan went live and got funded and the entire process took 5-6 days from opening the account to being funded, I really can't complain.  When you want something bad and it is important to you, every day you wakeup and check your email and there is nothing from them it drove me crazy, but looking back on the process, everything went well and I am very happy.

I REALLY hope your loan goes live soon, gets funded, and you are as happy as I am with them looking back on the whole process once you are funded.

[tokarev1972]

Great site! 

[tokarev1972]

There is a bug with the "Expires" on the loan detail page.

I was refreshing a loan and it went from "In under a minute" to "In 1 minute" to "In 2 minutes" etc etc...

[HalbHalbHalb]

So now btcjam have now enforced us to register our personal details to be able to do anything.

Due to that I have decided to pull out of btcjam, but I can't sell notes nor transfer my BTC out of btcjam because I have not registered. That really smells of foul play.

I asked btcjam about it, and here is there answer.

Me : I get a 'Withdraw error'  when I try to withdraw funds from BTCJam?

BTCJAM :Hello there, in order for you to be able to withdraw, you have to verify your identity in our platform. You have to submit a photo of your ID and also you have to provide your address. Make sure you do that on our website.

What are you others thoughts on this?

[owlcatz]

So now btcjam have now enforced us to register our personal details to be able to do anything.

Due to that I have decided to pull out of btcjam, but I can't sell notes nor transfer my BTC out of btcjam because I have not registered. That really smells of foul play.

I asked btcjam about it, and here is there answer.

Me : I get a 'Withdraw error'  when I try to withdraw funds from BTCJam?

BTCJAM :Hello there, in order for you to be able to withdraw, you have to verify your identity in our platform. You have to submit a photo of your ID and also you have to provide your address. Make sure you do that on our website.

What are you others thoughts on this?

Did you sign up as a lender or a borrower? I assume the former if you have sent BTC there?

When I signed up as a lender, I don't recall having to give much info at all, it seemed like it was just that way for Borrowers.

[Roypack]

Hi Ann,

You have a good service.

Why should you value all people the same?

From my observation people from USA and Brazil are favored than the rest of the World.

Just check the listings that get approved daily 95% are from those regions.

Why don't you close the service to the rest of the World and operate in those favored regions? It makes sense.

I have a B- credit score and I have been applying for a loan for the last 1 month without success.

I was told to send photos of my business and myself by one Alex, I did, from there oh Bret will assist you in the process, Bret asked for stubs and a contract of my clients despite my income being verified by the btcjam staff, I did that was the end of Bret never replied again.

After a week Alex came with other demands which I fulfilled and never approved my applications.

And when you reply you only reply 1 email  a day , what is this?

Instead of frustrating me you should tell me am not eligible for btcjam loans.

[owlcatz]

Hi Ann,

You have a good service.

Why should you value all people the same?

From my observation people from USA and Brazil are favored than the rest of the World.

Just check the listings that get approved daily 95% are from those regions.

Why don't you close the service to the rest of the World and operate in those favored regions? It makes sense.

I have a B- credit score and I have been applying for a loan for the last 1 month without success.

I was told to send photos of my business and myself by one Alex, I did, from there oh Bret will assist you in the process, Bret asked for stubs and a contract of my clients despite my income being verified by the btcjam staff, I did that was the end of Bret never replied again.

After a week Alex came with other demands which I fulfilled and never approved my applications.

And when you reply you only reply 1 email  a day , what is this?

Instead of frustrating me you should tell me am not eligible for btcjam loans.

First of all.. Who the hell is Ann? If you mean the thread title, it's short for "Announcement".

Second of all, this is not the site's support thread. Nobody from Btcjam will reply to you here.

Third, perhaps it just wasn't meant to be? The site sucks, it's full of scammers, and their support sucks even worse, as you have seen yourself.

Why don't you just go to the Loans section of this forum instead? You just need collateral, which, IMO, is actually worth more than some fake dox you, or the other "Borrowers" there may or may not have given to BTCScam....

That said ... Good luck on your loan.  

Edit - is this you? https://btcjam.ru/users/158725