Last week the P2P lending platform BitBond got a license from the German BaFin. BitBond is a fine little platform with lot of nice features. It’s unique selling point is that it is completely bitcoin based. You can get loans and invest on a USD and BTC base, but the complete backend is based on bitcoins. This will simplify the backend processes for all participants in a radical way and it can be used by unbanked population from undeveloped regions all over the planet.
The internal account will be managed only in BTC. Yes, this radical bitcoin p2p implementation will be a barrier for anyone who is not familiar with BTC, but it shows how easy this complicated business can become in the future.
The amount of loans is still rising and the platform has good chances for the disruptive network effect. It also has an open API to integrate the functionality into the own business or application and it gives us an idea about the connected business processe for small business.
Another nice feature is “AutoInvest” for all lazy investors, which are not interested in studying the loans on their own.
Ok, lets look on the other side of the coin. The interest rates are pretty high, up to 30% and the credit risk is also really high. On the platform you can look on the credit portfolios of the investors, they diversify their capital to a lot of loans and do not win in every case. Over all they earn money, but it’s not the holy grail.
BitBond Team, good luck with your platform, thumb up for your platform implementation and ideas !