What is the advantage of using the blockchain rather than creating a fully centralized debt exchange?
Investor buy-in.
Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets
91–100 of 167 posts
Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets
#92Maybe you don’t realize but this name is offensive to Buddhists... It’s like an insurance company calling itself “Gospel”
Insurance would be fine (though Christians might suggest "Numbers" as a more accurate biblical name.)
I think as a business they'd have more of an objection to Christianity being associated with moneylending.
Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do disagreements work with smart contracts? If you are big or popular or have connections, then the guys in power will bend the rules in your favour. Google 'The DAO' for an example. Otherwise, an algorithm will decide.
Not quite. The ecosystem was much smaller back then. Nowadays, I'm not sure one company would be able to make a case for forking the currency. Besides, you can still buy ETH classic, if you disagree with the decision. It's just not worth much.
Ethereum EIP-999 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16843991 and https://github.com/5chdn/EIPs/blob/master/EIPS/eip-999.md) is exactly that, a discussion of patching Ethereum to unlock a a few hundred million dollars that are inaccessible due to a software bug.
Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not quite. The ecosystem was much smaller back then. Nowadays, I'm not sure one company would be able to make a case for forking the currency. Besides, you can still buy ETH classic, if you disagree with the decision. It's just not worth much.
Ethereum EIP-999 ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16843991 and https://github.com/5chdn/EIPs/blob/master/EIPS/eip-999.md ) is exactly that, a discussion of patching Ethereum to unlock a a few hundred million dollars that are inaccessible due to a software bug.
It's almost definitely not going to happen.
Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets
#95There'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's code. If there's a bug it does what the bug says.
What happens when there's a disagreement with your program that prints "Hello W0rld"? It prints "Hello W0rld".
Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets
#96What is the advantage of using the blockchain rather than creating a fully centralized debt exchange?
A privately owned centralized debt exchange company can go out of business.
Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets
#97What is the advantage of using the blockchain rather than creating a fully centralized debt exchange?
I guess easier access to global markets, and reduced counter party risk with the exchange. Having the loans fully or over-collateralised (in the absence of credit scoring and real world debt collection) definitely reduces potential applications though.
Congrats on the launch still, great name ;)
Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not quite. The ecosystem was much smaller back then. Nowadays, I'm not sure one company would be able to make a case for forking the currency. Besides, you can still buy ETH classic, if you disagree with the decision. It's just not worth much.
I am 100% sure that if I went and "the code is the contract"ed whatever ends up being DAO2.0 out of 5% of all existing ETH, that Vitalik would come save it "just this once" one more time... I absolutely do not believe for one second that there wouldn't be another fork. And I say this as someone with a substantial interest in the currency.
Well, the point is, Vitalik can't do that. The community would have to agree with him.
If the situation were sufficiently dire, then presumably it would be easy to get community support. But the opposite is true too.
Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets
#99Earlier 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…
So the "collateral" is basically crypto-collectibles here?
Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
The protocol doesn't have a credit score. That's a concept better suited for the application layer built on top.
Right, which was why my point was that the collateral is probably going to be at least equal in value to whatever is borrowed.