Love the idea
Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets
121–130 of 167 posts
Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd recommend reading this blog post we put out. It explains better than I can in a short comment: https://blog.dharma.io/dharma-an-open-protocol-for-generic-t...
I am interested in knowing if there are advantages to using blockchain generally outside of Bitcoin - I don't understand it in this case from reading the post. A centralized exchange could be fully transparent, publishing every transaction, and handle every type of debt, if it wanted to.
Censorship resistance is a big factor - since no one entity controls the Ethereum blockchain or smart contracts that have been deployed to Ethereum, there is no way to shut down the service. This paves the way to a single global capital market that is much more inclusive and efficient than the haphazard and heavily intermediated capital markets we have today.
Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right now we expect most loans will be fully collateralized by other crypto-assets. So the default deterrence would be that if you don't pay back your loan, you lose your collateral. We also support unsecured loans (i.e., loans that are not fully collateralized). We consider these pretty experimental and lenders should do a lot of diligence before investing. For unsecured loans, counterparties can agree to any kind o…
What exactly is the use case for a 100% secured loan?
Even if you 100% collateralize, you can get 2x leverage. That leverage can be applied to all sorts of use-cases, but we think one of the main ones that will be common today is speculative margin trading (e.g., short selling)
Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
We discuss our business model a bit in this blog post: https://blog.dharma.io/dharma-isnt-currently-doing-a-token-s... Happy to discuss more, but that's a good start
You don't really though? Unless I missed the bit on how you want to get payed. All I see is 'building a great open source infrastructure', which while I applaud and is noble, is not widely accepted to pay rent so far
Ha, you're right, sorry. We think we'll be able to sell value added services to our ecosystem (for example, consulting services, insurance, data feeds, etc.).
We will also investigate token models to see if there is a way to make the underwriting process less trustful, and this token model may be a revenue generator as well.
Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does “disrespectful” instead of “offensive” satisfy your need to play semantics?
What about it is disrespectful, and why should anyone care? It’s true that if you look hard enough, you’ll always find an offended party, but so what?
This is a successful global branding strategy...NOT!
Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets
#126Earlier 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…
Why would there ever be a cryptographic token representing my house or car? It just doesn't make any sense. The map is not the territory.
Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets
#127Earlier 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…
Since there are many tokens (and increasing) that people must hold to be part of some network, tokens that are effectively shares of a business and stuff like that, these may make a good deal as collateral. People do lend out their stock, for example, today.
Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets
#128Maybe you don’t realize but this name is offensive to Buddhists... It’s like an insurance company calling itself “Gospel”
There are no buddhists in the US, so that's fine for now.
Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets
#129Maybe you don’t realize but this name is offensive to Buddhists... It’s like an insurance company calling itself “Gospel”
'Dharma' in Hinduism means 'Religion'. It's just a use case of the word, and as a Hindu, I don't find it offensive at all and I'm sure others feel the same.
Re: Launch HN: Dharma (YC S17) an open protocol for borrowing/lending cryptoassets
#130Earlier 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…
> namely, the emerging class of crypto-collectibles such as CryptoKitties.
You can’t honestly be serious about this. Please get outside the Silicon Valley bubble and look around.