As the wealth gap is growing, individuals denied conventional credit are in a constant struggle. Moreover, conventional institutions are reluctant to provide loans to users without borrowing history.
If they do give approval, it usually comes with exorbitant interest rates. Cryptocurrency loans offer a more holistic approach to credit than personal FICO scores.
How Personal Scores Are Formed
One of the most popular systems in the United States, FICO, considers five aspects of your financial past to rate your creditworthiness.
These are your history of payments, the total amount owed, age of history, new accounts, and credit mix. It all boils down to how likely you are to repay a loan.
The higher the score, the cheaper the loan as the interest rate goes down.
This method has important limitations, which makes platforms that lend coin so popular. First, a person who has just opened their first credit account may have a sterling reputation.
They may be wealthy and have a history of fulfilling commitments. Secondly, data is updated with a delay. Finally, reports may contain errors, which is why the credit repair industry is so large.
Discover Reputation-based Credit
The paradigm is shifting. Cryptocurrency lending platforms understand that your previous history is not the only factor to assess creditworthiness.
Your values, community impact, reliability, and history of purchases should also matter.
Suppose you are a talented employee, punctual and hardworking. Your employer should be able to recommend you for a loan or credit card.
Similarly, someone who gives back to the community shows reliability and dedication. Such factors are ignored by conventional scoring systems, but they can play a role in cryptocurrency lending.
Blockchain as Facilitator
Blockchain can support reputation-based scores in many ways. Here are the top two directions.
- Snapshot of Your Reputation
It is possible to create a system focused on reputational cultivation. It will provide a snapshot of your background to the lender. Such environments will endorse creditworthiness and responsible behavior, from being punctual to helping strangers.
- New Scores
Different companies are experimenting with alternative metrics for loan applicants. For example, BTCJam tried adding new criteria like social media and recommendation letters.
Although this idea did not pan out, recommendations can help users without credit experience.
Colendi has unveiled an algorithm that assigns a score based on data from the user’s smartphone, from social media activity to past purchases.
This also allows individuals to start with small loans and transactions and build trust gradually.
Exciting Prospects
Conventional institutions assess applicants based on a very limited number of criteria, and this has to change. Blockchain presents a great opportunity to add different reputational factors to the mix.
It can empower consumers to create unique identities, so they can have simplified access to lending online. This will allow everyone to get a loan and build credit.
