Introducing `ZumJum` - a grey paper. 🚀

Product feature/name 🚀

Rent/lease/hire goods and services – Bitcoin, as collateral, fixes this.

Bitcoin is digital property and can be used as collateral to use, hire, rent, lease another person’s physical property (or service) for a period of time, for a determined fee.

ZumJum provides a platform/protocol/proof of concept of how BTC can collateralise the leasing of goods on-chain and instalments either over lightning, crypto, fiat and or other instalment method available.

Problems & Solutions 🚨

Bitcoin is magic internet money. Attempting to replicate the markets that fiat has dominated is not the best use case of BTC. Sound money is not about ‘spending’ BTC but too often too many apps, in my opinion, are too focused on ‘spend’ and it too often comes across as another scam to get my hard won BTC. Other use cases to ‘earn passive income’ from Bitcoin are no more than elaborate scams when the details are taken in.

We need to return to what money is, it is an incentive, a calculation in our relations. Bitcoin apps need to emphasis psychology – the logical actor – over technology. Sat apps must give something of value back for the value they receive in the king coin other than the ‘novelty’ of paying through the nose in BTC. Overpriced token-gestures in return for hard money is the quickest way to turn someone back to a life of dirty fiat.

How was it built? 🛠

I know there is something called multi-sig and from the crypto-hacks I’ve learned that to move the funds a number of signatures have to be compromised. I’m assuming two persons meeting in person to exchange the leasing of a good, can lock away an agreed amount of BTC to cover the value of that good over the period of time the good will be leased for, a lightning invoice for regular instalments while the good is leased, and the release of that BTC to the rightful owner when the good is returned and the lease ends.

Blockers & Issues ✋

Psychology carries the technology. Some issues that could arise is that BTC might crash 80% after provided as collateral and so the lessee may decide they’ve had enough and keep the good instead. Or the lessor may get it back and be bad-mind and not unlock the BTC.

A malicious so-and-so may have a website that promises goods for hire but the goods don’t exist and if there is no physical meeting to inspect the goods a lot of BTC can be locked away out of reach of anyone.

A major issue is physically meeting to exchange but this was the case in the early days of Bitcoin and education, stern warnings, horror stories and advice around the issue will address this.

Try it out 🔗

Use cases are as mentioned above, between individuals hiring goods, a business can provide a platform where this happens. Libraries, car shares, micro-commute companies providing scooters, bicycles, tool hire such as camera equipment.

A more novel use is parcel delivery, where anyone can elect to be part of a chain that takes a parcel to the next person/drop off point each providing BTC collateral against loss or damage; sub -letting -hiring of goods; collateral for behaviour change e.g. New years resolution and keeping to it to unlock the BTC (accountability buddy). Renting deposit.

A more novel use is a dating app/influencer communications where BTC is collateral from each party at 50% and each message is a payment over lightning. If cat-fished, the aggrieved party can elect to keep the BTC locked, themselves losing half to hurt the other. Good for society, bad for the individuals.