Intrest-bearing Bitcoin Bank.

[MollyR]

Hmm, so maybe what we need is a small tax on mined/traded bitcoins, then use those funds to hire people with investigative and/or security skills to secure bitcoin and make sure the big players arent fraudsters.

[NothinG]

Hmm, so maybe what we need is a small tax on mined/traded bitcoins, then use those funds to hire people with investigative and/or security skills to secure bitcoin and make sure the big players arent fraudsters.

Unless you want to start a bank and charge a fee (in-case stuff gets stolen to pay people back until you figure out who did it).

[crawdaddy]

How would you tackle the fraud issue? I wouldnt let anyone touch my btc after the Mybitcoin wallet thing, and now we hear Bruce our biggest spokesperson is very likely a long time fraudster, seems like everywhere you turn someone wants to steal your coins.

I think it would be interesting to get a quote for deposit insurance form the Lloyd's of London

 http://www.lloyds.com/

If a bank provided real insurance they could charge a little higher fees to cover the cost of insurance. I bet no one would complain.
 

[the founder]

How would you tackle the fraud issue? I wouldnt let anyone touch my btc after the Mybitcoin wallet thing, and now we hear Bruce our biggest spokesperson is very likely a long time fraudster, seems like everywhere you turn someone wants to steal your coins.

I think it would be interesting to get a quote for deposit insurance form the Lloyd's of London

 http://www.lloyds.com/

If a bank provided real insurance they could charge a little higher fees to cover the cost of insurance. I bet no one would complain.
 

We tried that via lloyds,  the fees were SO high that it would effectively price out smaller deposits...

[crawdaddy]

How would you tackle the fraud issue? I wouldnt let anyone touch my btc after the Mybitcoin wallet thing, and now we hear Bruce our biggest spokesperson is very likely a long time fraudster, seems like everywhere you turn someone wants to steal your coins.

I think it would be interesting to get a quote for deposit insurance form the Lloyd's of London

 http://www.lloyds.com/

If a bank provided real insurance they could charge a little higher fees to cover the cost of insurance. I bet no one would complain.
 

We tried that via lloyds,  the fees were SO high that it would effectively price out smaller deposits...

I think it is awesome that you looked into it!. Could you post the quote? I think it would be a interesting piece of information.

[DeathAndTaxes]

How would you tackle the fraud issue? I wouldnt let anyone touch my btc after the Mybitcoin wallet thing, and now we hear Bruce our biggest spokesperson is very likely a long time fraudster, seems like everywhere you turn someone wants to steal your coins.

I think it would be interesting to get a quote for deposit insurance form the Lloyd's of London

 http://www.lloyds.com/

If a bank provided real insurance they could charge a little higher fees to cover the cost of insurance. I bet no one would complain.
 

We tried that via lloyds,  the fees were SO high that it would effectively price out smaller deposits...

I think it is awesome that you looked into it!. Could you post the quote? I think it would be a interesting piece of information.

Even if you are contractually bound not to post exact pricing, any ballpark information that wouldn't violate any agreements would be a valuable insight.  I think in time bitcoin wallets, banks, and exchanges will offer some sort of insurance.  Even the first entity which offers partial insurance against lost, theft, embezzlement by operator (say covers 50% of lost deposits up to 1000 BTC on losses beyond 25 BTC) would be massive.

[BitJammin]

I'd be interested in hosting a site like this.
Wouldn't be able to pay much, maybe like 0.01% interest.

You mean like the rate my bank account offers?

[deepceleron]

I'd be interested in hosting a site like this.
Wouldn't be able to pay much, maybe like 0.01% interest.

You mean like the rate my bank account offers?

Amazing, isn't it? "Loan us $1000 for a year, and we'll pay you a dollar"... As if banks don't have much confidence in the dollar holding it's value either (along with the fed offering super-cheap prime interest rates [loaning our tax dollars to the rich] as "economic stimulus").

[BitJammin]

I'd be interested in hosting a site like this.
Wouldn't be able to pay much, maybe like 0.01% interest.

You mean like the rate my bank account offers?

Amazing, isn't it? "Loan us $1000 for a year, and we'll pay you a dollar"... As if banks don't have much confidence in the dollar holding it's value either (along with the fed offering super-cheap prime interest rates [loaning our tax dollars to the rich] as "economic stimulus").

Amazing, astonishing, and yet, disappointing.

But then again...do you have confidence in the dollar?

[DeathAndTaxes]

Amazing, isn't it? "Loan us $1000 for a year, and we'll pay you a dollar"... As if banks don't have much confidence in the dollar holding it's value either (along with the fed offering super-cheap prime interest rates [loaning our tax dollars to the rich] as "economic stimulus").

Dollar holding its value isn't the issue.  Inflation favors debtors (which is the bank in a deposit relationship).  The more you anticipate the dollar falling the higher interest you can accept.

[altuin]

Wait. Does flexcoin do loans?

[nmat]

Wait. Does flexcoin do loans?

You 'loan' money to flexcoin and it pays interest. Flexcoin does not loan you money, if that's what you asked.

[altuin]

Wait. Does flexcoin do loans?

You 'loan' money to flexcoin and it pays interest. Flexcoin does not loan you money, if that's what you asked.

I wanted to take out a loan
If they do not loan money, how are they profitable?

[nmat]

I wanted to take out a loan
If they do not loan money, how are they profitable?

Because you pay a fee to send bitcoins. They re-distribute a part of those fees among the users.

[Ricochet]

I'd be interested in hosting a site like this.
Wouldn't be able to pay much, maybe like 0.01% interest.

You mean like the rate my bank account offers?

Amazing, isn't it? "Loan us $1000 for a year, and we'll pay you a dollar"... As if banks don't have much confidence in the dollar holding it's value either (along with the fed offering super-cheap prime interest rates [loaning our tax dollars to the rich] as "economic stimulus").

Astounding indeed.  And to think that back in the 70s the common interest rate was well above 20% because banks really wanted you to be their customer.  Granted, to be fair, bank loans were also excessively high at the time.  But inflation changed, interest rates changed, and suddenly we're at the situation where we're almost better off hiding our money under the mattress rather than putting it in a bank that will loan out that money at a 40:1 ratio.

[Ricochet]

Fun fact:  the economic crisis of 2008 wasn't entirely the fault of Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac.  The federal US government pretty much forced them to approve loans that could not possibly be paid back, under the idea that "higher home ownership == less crime == higher standard of living".  That same government then chastised those firms for doing exactly what they were told to do.

[altuin]

This isn't the place for fun facts.
HOwever, let me put it like this:
Don;t go blaming other people, if you aren't going to blame ALL the other people. the 2008 crisis was the fault of all subprime morgage lenders, the US Gov, Frannie and freddie, and people who bought homes they shouldn't have. I'm probably forgetting somebody here.

[Shashi Yakuza]

This isn't the place for fun facts.
HOwever, let me put it like this:
Don;t go blaming other people, if you aren't going to blame ALL the other people. the 2008 crisis was the fault of all subprime morgage lenders, the US Gov, Frannie and freddie, and people who bought homes they shouldn't have. I'm probably forgetting somebody here.

The whole U.S. mortgage lending fiasco is a wonderful study in the madness of crowds. The point where it all went off the rails was when the criteria for lending ceased to be the ability of a borrower to repay and became the ability of lenders to securitize loans off their books.

[Shashi Yakuza]

This isn't the place for fun facts.
HOwever, let me put it like this:
Don;t go blaming other people, if you aren't going to blame ALL the other people. the 2008 crisis was the fault of all subprime morgage lenders, the US Gov, Frannie and freddie, and people who bought homes they shouldn't have. I'm probably forgetting somebody here.

[jddebug]

I'd be interested in hosting a site like this.
Wouldn't be able to pay much, maybe like 0.01% interest.

Thats a bit better than I'm getting on my personal USD savings. Hmmmm. Maybe you should set it up.