Abstract
We disclose a zero-centred bilateral credit ledger for customer prepayment and peer-to-peer lending in which no balance grows on its own. Two parties keep one running balance, signed by both and held on both phones, whose sign states who owes, so prepayment and credit are one balance either side of zero. The balance never moves by time. It changes only by a co-signed entry when cash or goods change hands, its discount fixed on that entry; by a co-signed repayment; or by a release the creditor makes alone. There is no accrual, compounding or late penalty; the ledger is non-accruing but not interest-free. It is denominated in one currency and cannot be sold or assigned. A reputation display takes no amount argument: one equal-width, colourless segment for each counterparty a party currently owes, a gap where that balance is overdue, shown only when a new obligation is made. A text line shown only to the prospective creditor gives counts, a coarse band of the total owed, and whether the new balance is larger than any the debtor has repaid, stating no amount. Only the creditor's free release of the whole balance (debt forgiveness) crosses into a separate gift ledger, at most once per pair per annual season; repayment never crosses. Two sub-rules complete the claims: a static code carrying no signed terms can never open an obligation, and no one with a nonzero balance with a person may vouch for that person's new signing key.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Ly, Thon, "A Zero-Centred Bilateral Credit Ledger for Customer Prepayment and Peer-to-Peer Lending in Which No Balance Grows on Its Own — a Size-Blind Reputation Display, and Debt Forgiveness as the Only Crossing into a Gift Ledger", Technical Disclosure Commons, ()
https://www.tdcommons.org/dpubs_series/11953