The big news in bitcoin lending has always been the removal of the bank. Services like BTCJam facilitate peer-to-peer (P2P) loans using borrowers' real-world identities.
But not everyone is interested in tying their real-world identity to their finances.
The new subreddit FairShareLoans is attempting to make micro-loans without the bulky identity process. Creditworthiness of the borrower is determined by his Reddit karma and account history. The borrower is expected to pay back the bitcoin loan, with interest, within 30 days.
Sound risky? Perhaps. But the subreddit's moderators seem to be taking on all of the risk themselves at this point (though they do accept donations to their lending fund).
During the six days that FairShareLoans has been active, approximately 100 loans have been requested, ranging from 20 bits to 900,000 bits. Some users have posted about their experiences, citing that they've already paid back their loan and are excited about the potential of the subreddit.
 |
The FairShareLoans subreddit is an extension of FairShare, which is a “plan to build a global, voluntary-stateless basic income.” It's not immediately clear how making loans contributes to the goal of a cryptocurrency-funded basic income, however. Perhaps the moderators plan to use their lending profits to finance a basic income fund?
Whatever the end goal, FairShareLoans is a small and potentially successful demonstration of the wide array of possibilities within P2P cryptocurrency lending.
Did you enjoy this article? You may also be interested in reading these ones: