Show HN: Spread bitcoins by lending to friends • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Spread bitcoins by lending to friends

#41

Post by patio11 » Wed, Jul 03, 2013, 11:45 PM UTC

wmf wrote: post #34

btbuildem wrote: post #32

I've always wondered, is interest possible on BTC loans? Technically, it should not be, since there's a limited amount of coins. Are you qualified/classified/stamped/branded/innoculated/whatever to comply with US regulation bullshit? What's your business model here? Keep a % of the loan?

There's nothing stopping you from loaning, say, 1.0 BTC and asking for 1.1 BTC to be paid back later, but Bitcoin does not have any mechanism to help enforce such loans. There's a forum dedicated to it: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=65.0 Many people are skeptical of Bitcoin loans since the expected rate of return of holding BTC exceeds the rate of return of almost all legitimate businesses.

Many people are skeptical of Bitcoin loans since the expected rate of return of holding BTC exceeds the rate of return of almost all legitimate businesses.

To steal a tptacek line, "I hope to make the starburst of points which follow by implication rather than by explicit statement."

Re: Show HN: Spread bitcoins by lending to friends

#42

Post by JumpCrisscross » Wed, Jul 03, 2013, 11:56 PM UTC

milesokeefe wrote: post #33

ErsatzVerkehr wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin... a monetary system that requires internet connectivity and CPU usage... in which every transaction is recorded forever and the database is replicated by all participants... is "off the grid"?

It's the closest you can get to off the grid.

Cash? Gold? Cocaine? The way the actual "off-the-grid" economy works?

Re: Show HN: Spread bitcoins by lending to friends

#43

Post by JumpCrisscross » Thu, Jul 04, 2013, 12:00 AM UTC

btbuildem wrote: post #32

I've always wondered, is interest possible on BTC loans? Technically, it should not be, since there's a limited amount of coins. Are you qualified/classified/stamped/branded/innoculated/whatever to comply with US regulation bullshit? What's your business model here? Keep a % of the loan?

Think of the "Bitcoin economy" as a border-less sovereign country with a floating, fixed-supply currency. This country would still have interest rates, and those rates would still be a function of everyone else's interest rates in a way fundamentally related to the FX rate (complicated, but not insurmountably, by the lack of a low-risk Bitcoin counterparty, thereby holding back the development of Bitcoin collateral and lending markets).

Re: Show HN: Spread bitcoins by lending to friends

#44

Post by bobbyongce » Thu, Jul 04, 2013, 1:11 AM UTC

This is a great idea! This is one simple way to get started with Bitcoin and make Bitcoin more mainstream for the average person.

Re: Show HN: Spread bitcoins by lending to friends

#45

Post by quackerhacker » Thu, Jul 04, 2013, 3:53 AM UTC

Think this is cool, please consider a Twitter sign up at the least, (not sure about others) I prefer not to reactivate my FB.

Re: Show HN: Spread bitcoins by lending to friends

#46

Post by tlrobinson » Thu, Jul 04, 2013, 6:04 AM UTC

vhf wrote: post #37

milesokeefe wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the closest you can get to off the grid.

Nope. Zerocoin is. (Disclaimer : I'm a fervent Bitcoin supporter, I like its pseudonymous property and discard any anonymat claims. I've never used zerocoin because I don't have any use for it.)

You've never used ZeroCoin because an implementation of it doesn't exist yet...

But libzerocoin is coming tomorrow: https://mobile.twitter.com/ZerocoinProject/status/3521365613...

Re: Show HN: Spread bitcoins by lending to friends

#47

Post by tlrobinson » Thu, Jul 04, 2013, 6:15 AM UTC

pdog wrote: post #28

bernatfp wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People should avoid Ripple. Building an economy under a system that is in hands of one company isn't a very good idea.

Isn't Ripple a decentralized system, and weren't there plans to open source it?

That's their stated intention, but so far it's completely centralized and (mostly) closed source.

The biggest problem most Bitcoiners have with Ripple is the creators control the allocation of the currency used within the system (XRP).

Re: Show HN: Spread bitcoins by lending to friends

#48

Post by JoachimSchipper » Thu, Jul 04, 2013, 7:46 AM UTC

BrainInAJar wrote: post #25

dnautics wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

by placing a corresponding bid on mtgox and paying back your friend in bitcoin. It's kind of a dick thing to do to your friend, though, I suppose.

Dick thing or no, it's just business.

Most ideas containing the word "friend" are not "just business".

Re: Show HN: Spread bitcoins by lending to friends

#49

Post by pattle » Thu, Jul 04, 2013, 8:13 AM UTC

I really really like the design, good job

Re: Show HN: Spread bitcoins by lending to friends

#50

Post by argumentum » Thu, Jul 04, 2013, 11:39 AM UTC

bearwithclaws wrote: post #19

yayitswei wrote: post #9

We started this project at the Bitcoin 2013 Conference Hackathon in May and have been working on it since. The idea is to get people started with Bitcoin easily through friends. I'm close to 100% repayment rate on the loans I've made, though not everyone pays back in cash!

OP here: we are also doing a launch special where every new sign ups will get 0.001 BTC on us. If you don't own any bitcoins yet, you'll get your first one with BWF :)

If bitcoin succeeds, IMO one "satoshi" (0.000000001 btc) could be worth what one dollar is worth today. So you might just be giving everyone 1 million dollars ;).