[majormajor]

So the main difference seems to be just claims about speed and cost. E.g. trading down payment/secured-vs-unsecured/etc for different rates is all perfectly possible by bank-shopping today in the US. Perhaps systems elsewhere are less open, I wouldn't know, but happy to say there could be value in developing countries with less infra, though the ceiling for the valuation of such a system seems much lower. But I'm skeptical that speed would hold up for a lot of these scenarios. Things like inspecting the property you claim to have that will be part of your collateral. The actual transfer of funds has never been the slow part of any loan I've gotten - even a bank wire in the US, slow as the US banking system is compared to what I've read about Europe, can go through in a day. All the due diligence to make sure I'm who I say I am and have what I say I am takes a lot longer. I don't see blockchains really changing that for the simple reason that whether or not a blockchain says I own a piece of property or the state government says I own a piece of property, neither of those guarantee that in the real world it's in good condition, currently possessed by me (vs trying to borrow against a stolen car, say), etc.

Re: the Trustlines thing - from a scan of the website, what does crypto bring that one of the non-crypto implementations of "help do microlending in developing countries" from 10 years ago couldn't do? When I looked at that back then, reading people's stories, what they said they wanted to do with the money, etc, was all manual and, of course.

[rglullis]

It's not just the time to get the loan. It's also the time to settle disputes. Say that you wanted to lend money to someone who gives a collateral, and they default. How long would it take to go to the courts to make sure you can get what it is owed? On the blockchain, this is instant.

[majormajor]

Setting aside the potential values of the human element (e.g. the ability of a court to void a contract deemed illegal or done under duress), isn't that only true for digital assets?

If you secured it against artwork, for instance, that might've already been shipped to another country.

(As an aside, I would be all in favor of expanding the court system so stall tactics are less effective.)

[rglullis]

> isn't that only true for digital assets?

Currently, yes. But even if we stayed only in the digital realm, isn't that already a huge improvement over the status quo? I can borrow and lend money quickly, without leaving my home. If someone has artwork to use as collateral, they can go to a pawn shop (or call it whatever fancier term there is for it), get the cash and use that to buy crypto tokens. No banks involved.