Ask HN: The money/debt problem

6 points by LaPingvino ↗ HN
Has any of you tried to tackle the money/debt problem? Any advice for those who would like to try it?

I think it must be possible to create an online bank-like system without interest and with control mechanisms to facilitate payment in smaller communities and between friends. What would you think of such a system, any encouragements and tips?

5 comments

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The medium is the message. This means any alternative money systems that would be based or linked to our current forms of money will always suffer from the same problems we're facing today.
And if there is no interest whatsoever, and there is no need to repay everything? In that case you get a positive netto value instead of a negative one, without debt. So you would have a system based on goodwill instead of debt.
This type of services were kind of popular 4-5 years ago, but never really got a critical mass of users. Some of them also had some troubles with the law and Bank lobbies. Here is a few examples:

Zopa

Prosper

Landing Club