I think perhaps a more secure way of lending would be with a 1 of 2 multisig walletb(borrower and lender each holding a key) with each party signing a commitment transaction for the term of the loan. The borrower is then timelocked from the bitcoin until the end of the loan term, but the lender can spend the bitcoin at any time.
Then, the borrower has some guarantees that if the lender goes belly up during the loan period, then can retrieve their bitcoin after the timelock is up. But the lender has guarantees of the collateral value during the life of the loan.
This is similar to how the lightning network HTLCs work. Just a thought.
Not sure how that'd work in the legal world though. Usually a company that goes belly up sells off their assets, of which the loans still need to be paid back. But still probably better than traditional multisig.
Time locks are great for inheritance though!
Login to reply
Replies (2)
Yes, Timelocked contracts would work here.
However, if the borrower failed to repay the loan, the coins would be unlocked in any case, so the lender would need some form of additional collateral.
The lender would have full control of the bitcoin locked in the 2 of 2 multisig since they would be the one given the bitcoin in the commitment transaction. So there shouldn't be any need for additional collateral.