Bitcoin Credit Union

[evoorhees]

Found this from a while back - "Estimated Start-up and Operating Costs in Chartering a Credit Union"

Obviously, this is for a "real" credit union, but the report has lots of useful information about structure and process which could help guide a bitcoin credit union.

http://www.ncua.gov/resources/credituniondevelopment/Files/AcrobatDocument6-26-09.pdf

The organization, NCUA.gov has many other goodies as well.

[1714002906]

1714002906

[Nesetalis]

if you are going to put out loans.. (which are very risky buisness to begin with) I would suggest getting yourself setup as a financial institution in your country of choice, and abiding by those laws, and only taking loans from people who can be held to those laws.

otherwise you may find yourself in a bit of a hellish area.

as for the credit union itself.. id say give a variety of options for what people want to do with their money while its in savings.  whether they want to keep it there, put some of it in to your hands for low risk capital gains.... whatever.
as for transaction fees... what kind of transactions are you thinking about? like handling monitary transactions to other people in other currencies? or.. what?

also, what other ways do you intend to make money with the money that is being held?

[sentry]

if you are going to put out loans.. (which are very risky buisness to begin with) I would suggest getting yourself setup as a financial institution in your country of choice, and abiding by those laws, and only taking loans from people who can be held to those laws.

otherwise you may find yourself in a bit of a hellish area.

as for the credit union itself.. id say give a variety of options for what people want to do with their money while its in savings.  whether they want to keep it there, put some of it in to your hands for low risk capital gains.... whatever.
as for transaction fees... what kind of transactions are you thinking about? like handling monitary transactions to other people in other currencies? or.. what?

also, what other ways do you intend to make money with the money that is being held?

The way loans work here is that the members fund the loans by investing whatever amount seems fit to them. This way it is less of a risk to everyone involved. When someone requests a loan that persons "trust" rating is displayed, giving the investor a choice of what loan they feel comfortable investing in. Based on the amount they invest and the current interest rate set by the members determines the return to the investor.

Let's be honest here, bitcoins are a great idea and I support the cause and want to provide a service to give back to the community, but since bitcoins are not recognized as legal tender I am reluctant to call this a financial institution. This credit union plays the role of one, yes, but it is within the bitcoin community that I offer my services to. We may call it money, but we do so because it is simply a virtual good that has value given to it by the community and can be sold for legal currency. This credit union will never handle any legal currency and I prefer to stay away from that grey area.

The credit union makes money from votes cast by it's members to increase or decrease other bank fees like transfer fees and loan interest, votes can also determine the dividends that are paid out to members. It is in the interest of the credit union members not to make these fees go away because then the credit union has no income, thus there would be nothing to pay out to its members.

Currently the function of the savings account is a foundation for holding of funds with the intent to invest, but for now it simply serves a purpose by paying dividends to members based on the amount in their savings account. Remember though to put funds into the account you must transfer it there with the fee.

Found this from a while back - "Estimated Start-up and Operating Costs in Chartering a Credit Union"

Obviously, this is for a "real" credit union, but the report has lots of useful information about structure and process which could help guide a bitcoin credit union.

http://www.ncua.gov/resources/credituniondevelopment/Files/AcrobatDocument6-26-09.pdf

The organization, NCUA.gov has many other goodies as well.

Hey thanks for this, it's very informative.

[FooDSt4mP]

So Sentry.... did you run off with all our funds?  I can't get to bitcoincu.org or the original url.  Hopefully you're just working on something.  Please give us a status update.

[speeder]

I was going to ask the same.

[Garrett Burgwardt]

This is why I wasn't going to put coins into there: Sentry didn't have a good enough reputation to trust him. Additionally, I haven't seen any contact information.

-Garrett

[Gabriel Beal]

So Sentry.... did you run off with all our funds?  I can't get to bitcoincu.org or the original url.  Hopefully you're just working on something.  Please give us a status update.

Bitcoin is coming closer and closer to Eve Online every day.

[sentry]

No, everything is fine. Real world events has cause me to move to a different state. Getting the site back up has been my priority and I'm also sorry you guys had no warning but I didn't really have any warning myself. My move is still going on so the site may be up and down. I'm sorry if I've lost trust because of all this but the best I can do is tell you I would never just take your money and run, financially it makes more sense to see this through as I also have an idea for my next project which ties into the savings accounts.

Anyway, sorry for the panic.

[darbsllim]

How much was invested into this project so far, anyone know?

[sentry]

How much was invested into this project so far, anyone know?

By me, or the users? Its not too much, the wallet is at 11.50.

[speeder]

I really like your project, but seemly it is not working.

What we need to do to make it work properly?

[carbonpenguin]

Make a successful futures market so that people can pay insure their loans against currency fluctuations...

[sentry]

I really like your project, but seemly it is not working.

What we need to do to make it work properly?

Time. I'm doing this in my free time between work and family life, don't worry though I have no intentions of giving up on this.

Heres an update, earlier I fixed a bug with the account transfers and I discovered an issue loan payments. Working on that currently. Also, I've created a twitter account to let you guys know whats happening.
http://twitter.com/#!/BitcoinCU

[bitoption]

I am just about to launch an options market which will help with some of this. I'm updating my thread daily right now, it may launch today even (! Fingers crossed!)

[carbonpenguin]

I am just about to launch an options market which will help with some of this. I'm updating my thread daily right now, it may launch today even (! Fingers crossed!)

Finally!

[sayrith]

It's a wonderful idea. However, Here are 2 suggestions:

1)get a domain name. This will establish more trust in the union and
2)get HTTPS certified.

judging by the site, it looks promising. It still has some ways to go.  I hope it will work out very well.

[sentry]

Something I have been thinking about, should the credit union have its own forums for members to communicate?

[bitoption]

I think most people would prefer to keep communication here until the union is well established, and any reputation questions are worked out.

[sentry]

I think most people are thinking of the site in terms of as it is now, instead of how it will be when it goes live. Most suggestions I hear is get a domain and SSL, well I have both but I am working on the site continuouslly and have it locally for development reasons. It's much easier just to save a file and reload the page rather than having to upload to a server constantly. So yes, a domain is coming and actually already works (http://bitcoincu.org), SSL is on hold untill I move to a permanent server.

My question about the forums is meant to be for the site in general, do the members want to have any kind of community between themselves or should it be a blind system. Ignore the fact that I have no reputation, and people dont know if the union is going anywhere, to me it seems like a moot point.

[speeder]

How you will make people pay back the loan?