I don't know why you're talking about loans.  Nobody is talking about loans.  Legitimate IOU's are backed by actual assets.  It doesn't matter who holds the IOU, as long as the actual asset exists and you can trust the IOU provider to redeem the IOU for that asset.  It's really not that difficult to understand.  If I trust Bitstamp, you trust bitstamp and 8 other people trust bitstamp we can pass a $1 USD IOU from me, to you and all other 8 people with no issue because the actual asset that backs that $1 actually exists at Bitstamp.  The last holder in this scenario can redeem the IOU at Bitstamp, the same as the first and anyone in between.  Each person creating a new IOU before they pass it?  I don't even know where you got that from.  You're making this significantly harder than it needs to be.


Says who?  Some gateways will only be gateways and some will actually be market makers as well.  This is where you can determine who is best for you to do business with.