The debacle of Bitcoin P2P Lending
I felt nostalgic as I logged in to loanbase to check if there was any loan worth investing in; to my surprise there were only eight open listings. What once was a thriving community of investors and borrowers has become an online desert.
I joined loanbase when it was called BitLendingClub and even though there was a high percentage of scammy loans (around 8%), there were also some honest people who always paid on time.
I also checked BTCJam and the situation is somehow similar, not many loan options and very low activity.
Wayniloans seems like a fresh new option, their activity is also low but you can chose to lend money directly to the platform on "guaranteed money back" loans.
So, what happened?
I believe there are two main reasons why people stopped using lending sites:
1.- Scammers can´t be hold accountable: No matter what measures the website takes to filter out bad reputation loans, the fact is that anyone could be scammed even by a person who already paid back 10 loans and has a A+ reputation. I saw a lot of “famous” users go rogue once they realized how easy it was to just walk away with the money.
Let´s be honest even if you have the real home address of the scammer are you really going to travel to Nigeria or Venezuela to ask for your money back!?...mmm, no I don’t think you are, I doubt anyone would. Hiring a lawyer is another option but he will probably charge you more than the 0.5 btc you usually lend each user on those sites, so that is useless too.
2.- More options: Why would you risk your precious BTC on loans that could default when you could make 10% APR on SBD, or even more lending to margin traders on Poloniex.
Conclusion
Success on the crypto world comes and goes faster than college relationships, it is a shame that these sites have lost most of their user base and it seems that scammers have, once again, ruined it for the rest of us.
If you wanna do lending do it on here https://poloniex.com/lending#BTC
always satisfied !
I do amigo, I do!
I tried btcjam and lost some money because, borrower never returned ........
I lost money once but overall I was lucky I guess.. I dont think I will invest on those sites again unless I knew the borrower personally...
I did asked for 9 loans tho and paid them all back! hehe
I'm paying a loan on Prosper currently, not much longer to go. Only even heard about Prosper when I was looking for alternative investments tho, ironically. I realize that Prosper exists as an investment platform, but didn't realize the concept had extended to Bitcoin/digital. What are the "plusses" to this vs cash, to you as an investor? IE, why would you invest with Bitcoin rather than a more standard platform such as Prosper?
Well it is convenient to invest in Bitcoin if you don´t want to convert to FIAT...
I haven´t heard of prosper but I can assume they take USD and Euros but what about other currencies around the world?, Bitcoin is more globally accepted for us in the 3rd world.
Okay I understand the convenience factor then of not converting to fiats, and sometimes it's harder for me (U.S. citizen) to even realize the issues you have to deal with globally. Thanks for the reply.
Oh! http://www.prosper.com I'm not qualified to review it for you, but if I decide to get a second loan with them after paying my first one off, is there any possible benefit to you to let you know in advance, since I will be considered a good risk?