So it's more like, to borrow my car, you have to post 1.5x the value in an escrow account, I have to post 0.5x into the same account. If-and-only-if we both press the 'happily concluded' button, we each get the money back. If it goes south, our only recourse to (a) destroy the value in the escrow account (which either of us can do unilaterally at any time), or (b) use the leverage provided by (a) to negotiate an amicable solution outside the contract.
Which doesn't sound any less wild, or provide any more of a solution for actually dealing with the meatspace problem. In fact it adds a meatspace problem, since you can't actually be made whole by the escrowed amount, you have to go negotiate with someone that is trying to screw you (or who broke your camera, or trashed your house, or whatever) to arrange an out-of-band resolution.
But what is new about "web3" that wasn't part of the original Ethereum idea?
I don’t think this is the case here, smart contracts actually provide a very valuable service for this use case!
The important thing to note is that these rental agreements usually cost a lot of money and logistics that are being made much more convenient using ethereum
Re: Your example about the car — you would likely never lend out a car to someone you have 0 trust in. But you might keep some deposit just in case something happens, just like a regular rental service would. Automating that for people is very useful in my opinion!
Logistical issues will get better over time, but this suffers from the same logistics problem as Facebook marketplace, Craigslist, etc. and these services are extremely popular
Re: describing it as a library vs Airbnb — I think a library is a useful description of this. We are trying to be closer to a protocol service for people to create a library with their friends and lend things out to people. I don’t see the issue with using “library” vs “Airbnb for stuff”
If you were to really dispassionately analyze the transaction, lending something to a friend or acquaintance is predicated on there being enough social capital at risk in the relationship (or shared network) to insure things go well, or that you're made whole if they don't, along with a general knowledge their ability to cover potential loss. IMO codifying that into a financial relationship signals that you don't trust that reservoir of social capital, and in doing so erodes it. "Oh, I guess he doesn't actually trust me that much, if he's asking me to post collateral to borrow his truck".
The real value is in having an index of people you trust and all the things they’re willing to lend to you
I think as people gain trust over time the network effects start to become really valuable
The article suggests that you could use a “web3” library to lend out a car. Later, it describes how lending is secured:
> So let’s imagine Lisa wants to lend Bob her $10 item.
> What if Lisa could send Bob a smart contract that asks Bob to deposit $15 in the contract?
> This means that Bob would never be incentivized to steal the item, because he would lose more than the item is worth.
So if I want to borrow someone’s car I’d presumably have to send them money exceeding the value of the car itself? If I want to rent someone’s spare room I’d have to place a deposit worth more than the room and every item within it?
This stuff is so confusing to me because it seems to be solving the wrong problem. The difficult problem with lending someone something isn’t knowing that I’ll get it back: if they steal it I can call the police. Or I can get insurance, like Airbnb offers hosts. Or, hell, take the same principle and just get rid of the smart contract part: want to rent my car? Give me $20,000 for a few days. A startup offering that service would fall flat on its face but because crypto is involved somehow the idea is valid.
The difficult part is the actual meatspace stuff like coordinating meeting with the person to hand it over. The article promises that I can “upload your items to Junto and let them make money for you while you sleep” but my expensive kitchenware item isn’t going to ship itself over to someone else’s kitchen.
(also: maybe a minor aside in the grand scheme of things but describing this as a library feels particularly cringeworthy: libraries are free at the point of delivery and are a great societal good. What’s described here is “Airbnb for stuff”)