Your brother-in law Steve is going through a rough patch. He lost his job in September. By December he’s really hurting. Steve swallows his pride and asks you for a loan to get through the holidays.

Financially, you’re doing alright. You just got a nice Christmas bonus and lend him the bread.

Steve roughs it through the winter with the help of your loan. By early spring he gets a new job.

April, May, June go by…Steve seems to be back on his feet but you don’t see a dime. You complain to your wife, she says he’s still recovering and to be patient.

On the fourth of July you go to your in-laws house for a family BBQ. Steve pulls up in a brand new truck. What the fuck Steve!? He bought a new truck without paying you back a single cent?

You start sucking down Yuenglings like they’re pop corn chicken, stewing in the corner of the yard, pretending like you’re watching the kids while muttering about that cheap, swindling bastard Steve.

Eventually your wife walks over and asks what’s wrong? And you say, “it’s bullshit Steve bought a new truck, I lent him that money six goddamn months ago!”

She says, relax, he’ll pay it back, he’s just getting back on his feet and you’re like, “he’s been getting back on his feet for the past six months, he’s screwing us!” And she’s like, he needs the truck for work — but you know that’s bullshit, nobody needs a NEW TRUCK for work.

You fester in the corner of the BBQ, watching that motherfucker Steve, laughing, spitting out chunks of hot dogs like a slob.

You can’t stand it! “We’re going. Get in the car kids!”

Everyone is like, “Woah, what’s wrong with Jeff?” (your name is Jeff) But you just can’t stand to see Steve and his dumb brand new truck parked in the driveway anymore.

You start driving home and the kids are whining because you made them leave before the fireworks. They start fighting because their devices ran out of batteries and they’re bored. Your wife stares out the window, shaking her head.

You grip the wheel and smash down the gas because you did something nice and everyone is treating you like you’re the asshole!

One of the kids starts bawling and you turn back to scold her brother Tyler for stirring up shit!

As your head is turned, your wife screams, “JEFF!” When you look back at the road you see traffic is stopped dead and you’re careening straight toward a gas truck. You slam on the brakes and turn the wheel, totally losing control of the vehicle. The car flips straight into the gas truck. It explodes. The last sight you on this earth is your family engulfed in flames as your last spite-filled breath leaves your sour lungs.

If only you had used blockchain.

Let’s go back to December when everyone is alive and well.

Let’s look at today’s solution: Steve asks for money. You have a lawyer draw up a contract and come July, if Steve is buying trucks instead of paying you back, you could take him to court. Hopefully you get back more than you spend in legal fees and don’t cause a bitter grudge in the family that lasts until your generation is 6 feet under. Not ideal.

Here’s how this might work in blockchain world.

Steve asks for money. You say, “sure Steve, let’s go to a peer to peer lending platform and set up a smart contract real quick.” You both agree on the terms, put your crypto wallets into the smart contract and you transfer the money over to Steve.

The smart contract might say something like this, “whenever Steve receives any money in his wallet, 5% of that money will go to you (Jeff) until the balance of the loan is paid off.”

You don’t have to ask for the money back from Steve and Steve doesn’t need to do anything to transfer the money back to you. It just happens with the magic of blockchain. Nobody needs to keep track of anything; the money will be repaid programmatically over time as Steve gets back on his feet.

If Steve were to win the lottery or receive a settlement because his boss dropped a two ton granite slab on his toe, you would get all your money back the moment Steve gets paid, provided your loan is 5% or less of the sum payment.

Friction-less, fiscally responsible automation of loan management! No courts, accounting or badgering of in-laws are needed.

This blockchain solution is likely years away. It depends on mass adoption of crypto as well as crypto wallets that people don’t/can’t discard willy nilly — which may be the case if crypto wallets are integrated with government operations — but that’s an article for a different day.

Until then, drive safe!