Peer-To-Peer Lending: The Free Market In Action

[hazek]

Is this how BitCoins could go mainstream?:

Peer-To-Peer Lending: The Free Market In Action

The internet is a beautiful thing, it creates opportunities to streamline so many things in our lives. It creates a marketplace where people can reach each other so easily. It has the power to decentralize authority and break down barriers. We have information sharing at an insane rate that people just 20 years ago couldn’t imagine, but I think we have yet to see the real power of the internet.

As the financial crisis rages on, a fairly new form of decentralized lending and borrowing is emerging through online sharing of money. According to a study by Grail Research, person-to-person lending (P2P) is a fast emerging trend that could seriously reduce dependence on banks. P2P lending is a form of micro-lending where an individual or a group lends money to a person in need without any intermediary or central authority like a bank.

More at: http://csinvestor.com/peer-to-peer-lending-the-free-market-in-action/

P2P lending: http://www.kiva.org/

We are a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world. Learn more about how it works.

[jgarzik]

See the history of Prosper.com for peer-to-peer lending...

[FreeMoney]

Is this how BitCoins could go mainstream?:
 
We are a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as .01BTC to help create opportunity around the world. 

tada, better like that.

[kiba]

Bitcoin loans are kinda useless if you have to convert it to dollars to buy productive capital.

[FreeMoney]

Bitcoin loans are kinda useless if you have to convert it to dollars to buy productive capital.

Sure you have to for now...

[jgarzik]

There is IMO absolutely nothing wrong with lending bitcoins.  I think any healthy economy must involve lending -- which is essentially human beings investing in other human beings, moving progress and civilization forward.

When used wisely, debt may better direct capital to useful enterprises (== entrepreneur borrowing to invest in new business you would have never thought of, or have time to run).  The lender understands there is a risk that money may simply never be recovered, in certain cases (bankruptcy or theft).

[xenon481]

See the history of Prosper.com for peer-to-peer lending...

Don't even get me started on Prosper.com.........

You can read all about the history and problems of Prosper.com on the forums at http://prospers.org

[jgarzik]

See the history of Prosper.com for peer-to-peer lending...

Don't even get me started on Prosper.com.........

You can read all about the history and problems of Prosper.com on the forums at http://prospers.org

Yep.  I was on proper.com (and that site) from inception until they banned lending North Carolina due to regulatory issues.

Very educational.

[caveden]

Bitcoin value is still too instable for serious lending. You have no idea how hard/easy it will be to pay your debt. Bitcoin lending will probably have to wait for a stabilization in bitcoin value, and I guess that will only come after "mainstreanization".