[jacobian]

Right now it looks like they're requiring Facebook accounts to rent cars, and so they can (presumably) use the Facebook social graph as a rough proxy for trustability. Personally I sorta hate that policy (I've not got a Facebook account...) but it's a fairly good idea, I think.

And, of course many, many said similar things about AirBnB -- "couldn't a thief just book a room for the night and then make off with the TV?" -- and that's proven not to be much of an issue in practice.

[compnerd]

Doesn't AirBnB require the host to be present during check-in and key exchanges? I assume a person would be more tempted to steal something if the owner never sees them in person.

[jdunck]

Thanks for contributing here, Jacob. As you know, I'm a fan, and it's great to see some debate here. I'm not paying much attention to HN these days due to time constraints.