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Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets

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61–70 of 167 posts

Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets

#61
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also a Buddhist (a savaka, technically). I have no issues with the name. If the name causes one person to learn what the Dharma is and to stop harming themselves and others, that's a great thing. It looks like a cool project too.

..or the name becomes so diluted by it's usage everywhere, where appropriate and not (like a name of lending platform), that it loses all meaning. Like word Zen by now. The only reason people began using words like Zen, Dharma, Buddha, Nirvana for commercial products that had nothing to do with the meaning of these words is because these words had certain power to them that businesses wanted to capitalize on. Like a…

> The only reason people began using words like Zen, Dharma, Buddha, Nirvana for commercial products that had nothing to do with the meaning of these words is because these words had certain power to them that businesses wanted to capitalize on.

Or Karma. That one really has been beaten to death online (and offline too).

But in the end they're just words, they mean what we want them to mean and words were always fluid, you can't nail them down and expect them to remain nailed down over a long period of time.

Just a few more examples: gay, mouse, dial, heaven, respect and so on. That some people assign more value to some words than to others is the root cause of a lot of misery in the world.

Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets

#62
post #9

Nadav, "Dharma" is widely recognized as the term to denote the teachings of Buddha. I feel the use of the term in this new context is cultural misappropriation. Would you care to address that concern with your thoughts on the topic?

One persons's cultural mis-appropriation is another one's wealth. Mis-appropriation is how words spread historically, I don't think you're going to stop that from happening.

Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets

#63
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The collateral is held in a smart contract -- if the borrower disappears and fails to make a repayment, his collateral becomes eligible for seizure.

Are the collaterals always worth equal or more than the amount borrowed? I asked that assuming people put up 1 eth as collateral to borrow 2 eth.

Usually collateral is supposed to be equal or more than the amount borrowed, especially in a situation like this where there is no 'credit score' to use to determine likelihood of default.

Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets

#64
post #42

There's something I don't understand about Smart Contracts. Normal contracts are written by lawyers. They are reviewed by both parties' lawyer. Sometimes, after the contracts are signed, the lawyers disagree what a particular provision or clause means. At which point, they either negotiate or sue. In which case, a human judge weighs up the case and decides. How do disagreements work with smart contracts? I assume som…

It depends, I guess. If what you're talking about is a disagreement between two parties about the object of the contract or its conditions, I don't see why you couldn't resolve it the same way you would with a paper contract. I don't know if any country's definition of contract is broad enough to include smart contracts, but you could possibly bring this to court, perhaps?

If the two parties can agree on a new stipulation of the (smart) contract, a new contract can be issued.

As an aside, this is painful, as a smart contract's address will usually be linked to some user facing application or just your own wallet.

A way to facilitate this is through the use of a proxy contract, which is a contract that exists only to forward instructions to a secondary contract (the main one). The main contract can then do whatever is meant to do.

Now if there is a disagreement or a bug, after an agreement is reached, you can deploy your new contract, change the address on the proxy contract and you're done.

Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Say I own 1 bitcoin at $10k/BTC. I want to go buy a mining rig for $5k. I could sell 0.5BTC and buy the rig. BUT, I believe that BTC is going to $20k, and I don't want to sell. So I go to person X and say lend me $5k against what is currently $10k of BTC. He has 2x collateral coverage... so he makes the loan. if BTC falls to $7500, he may have the option to sell and recover his loan. I get my money so I can create mo…

What happens if after immediately getting his $5k BTC I buy a sweet rig for $15K BTC and the price of bitcoin drops to $4k? I guess I can’t spend the collateral in the first place?

This can happen on the stock market too. When bitcoin drops to around $5k, you get margin called and bitcoin will get sold on the open market.

Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe almost all of these 'sacred' terms have totally pedestrian etymological roots. Bible = book. Koran = recitation. Dharma = decree or custom. Karma = fate. Christ = anointed. Another interesting semi-related one I remember about the Bible: the "Virgin" Mary was translated from the Hebrew "almah", which just means a young unmarried woman (not necessarily a virgin in the way we define it).

Interesting, I didn't know the origins of the words Koran or Dharma. I don't know much about biblical hermeneutics, but wasn't the New Testament written in Greek? Also, based upon Church tradition and history, even if the word didn't explicitly mean virgin, it is certainly understood to mean it with relation to Mary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almah#Bible_usage

It looks like the Greek version is the point where 'almah' got translated as 'parthenos', a word that more specifically means virgin.

It's definitely become a key part of the tradition. I'm now agnostic, but went to a Catholic school growing up, so I know well how much importance is placed on it. I've just always found it interesting how such a core belief of the most popular religion in history might (or might not) have been based on a simple mistranslation.

Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what is the collateral here? My house? A car? Money? If my collateral is another liquid asset it doesn’t make sense to borrow, and if it isn’t how exactly does the lender go about seizing it? I want this explanation to reach a satisfactory conclusion.

The collateral can be any other asset that is represented by a cryptographic token. Right now, few crypto-assets map to real world assets in some capacity, but we're willing to make a bet that this will change faster than most expect. Already, though, there are many interesting assets in the world of crypto that are particularly well suited to being put up for collateral -- namely, the emerging class of crypto-collec…

If the borrower is the one setting the collateral, what's to prevent me from putting up something that's rapidly depreciating like my collection of e-Beanie Babies and effectively stealing the loan?

Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beat me to the reply :) Indeed, even with a fixed supply token, a borrower would simply have to come across the necessary amount of principal + interest in the loan term.

But that's kind of the point, isn't it. With the fixed supply the "+ interest" would be harder to come by. Wouldn't it lead to elevated levels of defaults?

One way or another, the borrower has to come up with the principal + interest or they will forfeit their collateral. So they will want to use the loan in some sort of income generating capacity: financing a project, speculative trading, etc. If they are able to use the loan to earn more than the interest rate they've committed to, they'll make money overall. If not, they'll lose money.

Bottom line: we don't think the monetary policy of crypto-assets will have much of an impact on default rates in the short term.

Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets

#69

How is this different from EthLend or SALT

EthLend and SALT are both lending applications. While we have created a lightweight lending app in Dharma Plex, our core offering is Dharma Protocol.

Dharma Protocol is a suite of developer tools that enables entrepreneurs to create apps like Ethlend or SALT easily and securely. It's open source and entirely free to use.

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