Post
Topic
Board Project Development
Re: Peer to peer microlending service done right!
by
alexykot
on 04/07/2013, 08:58:03 UTC
Why does it need to be anonymous? I don't think you can have both anonymous and scam-proof at the same time for a lending platform.
Being non-anonymous doesn't prevent scams, because they always can use fake identity. Demanding non-anonymity is not designed to prevent scams, it is designed to scare scams and allow prosecution after scam was revealed. However, in practice prosecution is costy and not effective, especially in bitcoin-based system, so it doesn't help scaring scams away and doesn't prevent scamming in general.

I'm making a system that instead of prosecuting scams post factum will prevent scams from entering the system in the first place.

It is impossible to weed scams out before entering. I could run a scam right now and people would trust me cause I built trust up. So this means your just trying to hype up your platform that is really just like every other platform or you don't understand  how this market works.
I'm trying to get clever criticism and peer reviews of the idea. There is no platform yet to create hype around.

So, why do you think it's impossible to weed scams out? Classic lending and microlending institutions right now are tossing scams away effectively, but at a cost of formal due diligence applied to every potential borrower. And still a well prepared professional scammer will get through, because he will prepare and provide trustful legend and supply trustful (fake) documents to support it.

My idea is that we can replace formal due diligence with an informal one, run by those who know potential borrower in person. If you know someone personally, you can judge if he is a scammer or not, and most likely - a real scammer will not even go to you with this, as he knows that you know that he is a scammer. 

My idea is not about giving out referrals to anybody you're "in friends" on facebook. It's about to refer only those few who you know and trust in person. And I think it's a matter of giving people right incentive to on the one hand - be willing to get into and get benefits, and on the other - to choose wisely.