If
you’ve ever been in a situation where you needed a personal loan, you
know it can be wildly difficult. Companies that offer personal loans
(even enterprise-level banking institutions) charge exorbitant fees, and
often require you to ‘sign in blood’ for the loan. In fact, much of the
consumer credit market is held by just a few major banking institutions.
Nowhere is this situation more critical than among millennials.
Often, young people turn to friends or peers to find the loan they
need, or even to friends of friends who are able to help out. The
reason? They trust technology like Bitcoin more than they trust banking institutions.
This lack of trust has led to a sort of thriving
underground, or hard-money, lending world where interest rates can be
very high but there is no centralized institution to take profit and
drive regulation.
Blockchain cannot be stopped by banks
According to a recent article in Forbes, the answer for this system seems to be coming from Blockchain technology. Already revitalizing the banking industry,
and threatening to change the way we think about investments,
Blockchain technology may also have the answer to personal lending
instruments. One company CEO, Alex Mashinsky of Celsius, sees Blockchain
technology changing everything:
“The Blockchain is a global phenomenon that can not be easily stopped or regulated, and it represents a new paradigm shift for the financial industry. We see this as the third wave of the internet which will restructure and force the reinvention of almost every financial process we are used to today.”
Blockchain technology allows the removal of centralized
banking institutions and moves lending into the hands of a peer-to-peer
network, replacing the manager with a technological solution, and
allowing for far more competitive lending rates.
Contra Jamie, Ken?
There is a general sentiment that Blockchain technology is
moving toward a greater role in the banking world. This sentiment is
shared by people like Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who recently called Bitcoin a ‘fraud,’ and Ken Rogoff, who said Bitcoin would collapse. Yet both champion Blockchain technology. They see a future for Blockchain without a future for Bitcoin.
However, peer-to-peer lending systems like those coming to
the market are really connected to the very bedrock of what has kept
Bitcoin moving. The nature of the asset, being entirely decentralized,
means that peer-to-peer activity is possible without the need for
centralized systems like the institutional banks. It may be that these
nascent technological changes are moving guys like Jamie and Ken out of a
job.
