It will be even more interesting to learn why so many lenders allowed themselves to be suckered into bidding on high-risk no-collateral loans with their hard-earned money (versus using only a portion of their “risk capital” to test out the idea before jumping in with larger sums of money).

People-to-people lending has existed for centuries, but on a local level where all the participants know each other. Taking this type of lending to a national level where the participants don’t know each other is a great social experiment made possible by the Internet. But whether this is a good way to deploy one’s money still has not been proven (nor has it been disproved yet, either). We live in interesting times.

Where were the individual lenders when it came to doing their due diligence before they put their hard-earned money at risk? Is the Prosper lender community a community of savvy lenders who do their homework and learn from their mistakes? Or is the Prosper lender community a community of mindless sheep that let themselves be forever herded around by their own fantasies of getting rich quick? The world wants to know.