I am sure you may have heard of peer to peer lending, sometimes it gets a bad rap. I think it was in the UK recently where a P2P lending company went under and took peoples money with it.
There’s also P2P lending available in crypto, in this case Bitcoin specifically.
Testing the waters
I have been wanting to test these waters for a while, I am no whale by any measure, but what BTC I do hold I would like to put to use.
I decided to loan some of it out, a whopping 50 000 satoshis, valued at ~$5 at the time of writing this.
Surely the person did not ask for a $5 loan?
No, they requested ฿0.015. The loan was listed on the site BTCPOP (referral link). People can apply for a loan, and investors can decide to pool their money in and fund the loan if they find the risk to reward ratio favourable.
This particular loan is for funds to fix a cutting machine for a home business, it is risky as the person has not put up an collateral.
I did see from their history though that they have taken out other loans and have not been late on those.
What if they don’t pay?
Then I lose my satoshi’s, because there is no collateral. Thats part of the reason I put that amount in.
In cases where the users have collateral, you can get your funds back, what portion depends on the percentage of collateral to the bond amount the applicant has. Collateral can be shares, also on BTCPOP, or altcoins held on BTCPOP.
The payment is due in two weeks, at which point I should get out 55 000 satoshi’s, which would not be a bad return I think.
As with anything else, you should not invest anything that you cannot afford to lose, so if you do decide to take a look at P2P lending, exercise caution and take it slow.
