Silk Road forums
Support => Feature requests => Topic started by: chemdog on July 26, 2012, 12:46 pm
-
TLDR Version:
* Formalise a small loans system within SR
* Limit the amount that can be borrowed to 1BTC, with no limit on repayment.
Benefits:
* Acknowledges the way things are by formalising something that is already happening
* Peace of mind by building trust, utilising a trusted feedback system for money lending similar to the feedback systems already in place
* Gives buyers more opportunities to buy, by providing convenience for buyers who find themselves caught short after conversion fee's or with postage requirements
* Makes money by creating a new revenue stream for SR and for vendors
* Feels good, because it is the community helping the community
I've seen a fair few threads requesting small btc loans, which I would be willing to engage in if there was a method to do so using the SR system as the trusted third party. Nothing major, just literally the ability for members to send a single bitcoin or less to another, safe in the knowledge that they will get it back, perhaps deducted at source upon the borrowers account being credited or some such, with a feedback system to rate lenders / borrowers.
I know the established mode of businesses like this is to take a small cut whenever monies change hands, but perhaps if this was a small, fixed price, SR could take a cut that might become quite lucrative for the site operators also.
This idea needs some work to make it useful, but seeing the amount of loan requests, perhaps it is a case of SR just facilitating a market demand to formalise a profitable low value/high volume service.
NB: Having had some development experience, I realise that "could you just do this" type requests can be the bane of a programmers life.
Cheers!
CD