This is not an interest-earning back idea. Such is covered in the Decided Issues thread. This is only an ulterior option to the listing fee and would ultimately act in the exact same way as said fee, providing that proper precautions were taken.
First, I would like to thank Scraps of Former Sanity for first suggesting this idea when we were debating the usefulness of the 2% listing fee.
Now, I fully support this fee and feel that it will almost certainly cause disinflation in the marketplace (Disinflation is inflation at a slower rate, not an actual decrease in prices). However, many are obviously vehemently opposed to this tax, claiming that it is unfair, that it will fail to improve the status quo, that it isn't the staff's call to make, or any other of a myriad of complaints that you can find floating around. Now, in addition to this, a good number of users are rather disgruntled that their loan services have been terminated by Gaia staff and have, for some time, been petitioning the return of such services.
What I offer is a simple solution to both these problems: Make the Bank of Gambino an actual bank. Allow users to take out loans and store money. But wouldn't users just withdraw massive amounts and never pay it back? No. You put a cap on the maximum amount of gold that may be withdrawn at a time. Additionally, you prevent a user from withdrawing (As in taking out another loan, rather than in the sense of withdrawing from personal funds.) any additional gold until the standing loan has been paid off. To ensure that the loan is paid off effectively, all gold gained after the loan was taken out could be directly sent to the Gambino Bank to reduce the overall balance of said remaining loan.
To help control the inflation, all loans repaid must also include a, say, 2% tax. This would help control inflation, let users retain their control over the marketplace, and satisfy those requesting loan services be returned.
But, with all of this gold being loaned out, what would prevent a user from withdrawing the maximum amount of gold with a mule account, trading it to a main account, and the never repaying it? Well, a number of safeguards could be implemented to prevent this:
- Withdrawal restrictions could be implemented. (I.e. one must have been a user for x months, must have y posts, etc.)
An alert or report could be sent to moderators regarding loaned gold that was immediately transferred from a newer account to an existing one. This could detail the amount of gold transferred, the age of both accounts, etc. and would allow for effective prevention of scams.
If loaned gold sat unused in an account for a longer period of time to bypass the previous security measure, a report could again be sent out to moderators.
Users must not only purchase a vending and trading pass, but also a bank account before being allowed to take out a loan or deposit gold.
Though ultimately a user could still bypass nearly all of the above preventive measures, they would likely be isolated incidents and easily tracked. There would, of course, be the occasional misgiving where a report was sent in response to a legitimate trade, however this is bound to happen in any system and will likely be reduced to a minimum.
So, if you wouldn't mind giving me some feedback on the idea, it would be much appreciated. In the next week or so, I am hoping to contact Sagger-AT3 and discuss the effectiveness of such an approach, it's potential impact on the economy, etc.
