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This is a naïve interpretation of my comment. Here's a real product [1] that considers all the pitfalls you enumerated, and achieves what I had in mind. [1]: h

This is a naïve interpretation of my comment. Here's a real product [1] that considers all the pitfalls you enumerated, and achieves what I had in mind. [1]: https://hellobloom.io https://hellobloom.io

wpietri 9y ago
It's a pretty straightforward reading of your comment. Bloom is a fancier but also naive attempt. Nobody on that team has experience with loan origination, loan underwriting, loan rating, loan syndication, credit reporting, credit scoring, credit cards, debit cards, or debt collection. Having read the white paper, it is weirdly specific on record formats, and weirdly hazy on almost any important issue. It seems a fine example of the XKCD cartoon about physics majors. [1] Remember when somebody who built a Magic the Gathering card exchange and then decided they could build a currency exchange? I'm not an expert [2], but that's what the Bloom.io stuff reads like to me. People joke that Bitcoin is basically the Dunning-Krugerrand, and things like Bloom don't do much to challenge that view. [1] https://xkcd.com/793/ https://xkcd.com/793/ [2] Although I have build financial trading software, worked on a loan accounting system focused on the underbanked, and am currently consulting for a commercial lender, so I'm not entirely ignorant.
- mankash666 9y ago
  Again, your response is typical of incumbents in any sector. AirBnb founders weren't hoteliers, Uber founders weren't taxi industry veterans. Everything you know can be learnt from a book, or obtained by hiring someone like you - and there are PLENTY of your kind to hire. Now, for every successful Uber, there have been 100 failed attempts at the same. Will HelloBloom be the Uber of credit reporting- can't say. But will credit reporting be disrupted by someone like Hello Bloom, definitely.
  - wpietri 9y ago
    I'm not an incumbent in the industry. Nice try, though. My issue here isn't with industry disruption, which I generally like. It's with hallucinatory blockchain-based hype. For years I've been hearing that Bitcoin or some other blockchain technology will disrupt money transfer and online purchasing. But Bitcoin never got any foothold in international remittances and is actually in retreat in e-commerce. Now the Bitcoin hype had metastasized into blockchain and ICO hype, but I don't think there's any more meat to it. But if you're so sure, let's put money down. I have $500 that says no blockchain-based startup will get even 1% of the US credit reporting market in the next 5 years. We can put the bet up here: http://longbets.org http://longbets.org You in?
    - wpietri 9y ago
      You reply: > Yeah, that's what I thought you'd say.

wpietri 9y ago

It's a pretty straightforward reading of your comment. Bloom is a fancier but also naive attempt. Nobody on that team has experience with loan origination, loan underwriting, loan rating, loan syndication, credit reporting, credit scoring, credit cards, debit cards, or debt collection. Having read the white paper, it is weirdly specific on record formats, and weirdly hazy on almost any important issue. It seems a fine example of the XKCD cartoon about physics majors. [1] Remember when somebody who built a Magic the Gathering card exchange and then decided they could build a currency exchange? I'm not an expert [2], but that's what the Bloom.io stuff reads like to me. People joke that Bitcoin is basically the Dunning-Krugerrand, and things like Bloom don't do much to challenge that view. [1] https://xkcd.com/793/ https://xkcd.com/793/ [2] Although I have build financial trading software, worked on a loan accounting system focused on the underbanked, and am currently consulting for a commercial lender, so I'm not entirely ignorant.

mankash666 9y ago
Again, your response is typical of incumbents in any sector. AirBnb founders weren't hoteliers, Uber founders weren't taxi industry veterans. Everything you know can be learnt from a book, or obtained by hiring someone like you - and there are PLENTY of your kind to hire. Now, for every successful Uber, there have been 100 failed attempts at the same. Will HelloBloom be the Uber of credit reporting- can't say. But will credit reporting be disrupted by someone like Hello Bloom, definitely.
- wpietri 9y ago
  I'm not an incumbent in the industry. Nice try, though. My issue here isn't with industry disruption, which I generally like. It's with hallucinatory blockchain-based hype. For years I've been hearing that Bitcoin or some other blockchain technology will disrupt money transfer and online purchasing. But Bitcoin never got any foothold in international remittances and is actually in retreat in e-commerce. Now the Bitcoin hype had metastasized into blockchain and ICO hype, but I don't think there's any more meat to it. But if you're so sure, let's put money down. I have $500 that says no blockchain-based startup will get even 1% of the US credit reporting market in the next 5 years. We can put the bet up here: http://longbets.org http://longbets.org You in?
  - wpietri 9y ago
    You reply: > Yeah, that's what I thought you'd say.