I've been writing about loans forever, but not precisely the micro kind. That said, this is the sort of thing Hive needs, but I have some questions for you. Some question and then some info you might know or might not.

A new loan platform has just opened up. @hive.loans/hlshare-has-been-distributed-hive-engine-token-is-live-now

Some details about it seem rather iffy, to be charitable, but alas. This idea is in people's mind, and thus you do well exploring it.

Now...

When I think about us coming up with loans, or the main reason why I think its needed, is to precisely attract big money to our chain. To destroy the barrier of the 3 month powerdown friction that usually makes people go "Wut?"

So, someone with let's say 100k hive power, can loan against his/hers HP if need be, pay of course the fee (commission for the lenders), or let's call it penalty for taking out big chunks of HP up front. Deposit Certificates here in South America have a similar dynamic. I put, let's say 50k locked in for a year, if I need it before, I pay a fine, but I can take it back if I absolutely need it.

The challenge to me becomes, how do guarantee repayment? How do we make it close to impossible for someone to run off with the money?

To me, there's only one way, and it's one that makes most people uncomfortable. All accounts that can participate of a loan system, have to have their recovery account set to the escrow account. And, funny enough, and this is the part most people will absolutely reject, have their Owner key held in escrow. This is the part when a smart contract is needed, the "you won't get away with it contract"

To be clear, the idea would be that while you are indebted, while you have to repay the loan, you know two things: 1) your recovery account is set to the escrow service 2) your master keys is held by a smart contract of sorts.

So, if the person tries to pull a: Bye Wilma, thanks for the fish...

If he or she tries to change keys, or change the recovery account before full repayment, then the smart contract recovers the account and locks the person out.

Meanwhile, if the person is making payments, not changing keys, just posting along, doing what they do: After the loan has been satisfied, the smart contract deletes the keys, and thus the account now is chainless.

For me this escrow system should also then, almost by necessity, offer a recovery service for accounts, like the one Arcange runs.

If we build something like this, in my humble opinion, we build a system where big money can come in and truly inject cash into this place. But, it would also have to go in hand with lower the APR on HBD. Otherwise, its not so attractive. Another reason why this is 3d chess.

If we had a 8% APR on HBD, for example, and on average people providing liquidity through this loan system make 15, 20 points on their money- we got- in my opinion, a winning combo.