So finally funded two $50 loans on Prosper. I was outbid several times as it took me a while to understand the market rates being offered. My selection criteria was:
* Loans that were already at least 50% funded by Prosper lenders
* Grade B credit or better
* A reason for borrowing that made sense to me – I focused specifically on people looking to pay off their credit card debt

One loan is at 8.45%, the other 8.94% for an average of 8.7%. Since this is more of an experiment for me, I wasn’t really focused on maximizing return. Since the market is still relatively small and participants are new, I’ve gotta believe there’s a wide disparity of interest rates being paid out and very little internal consistency.

Some of the Prosper guys came and spoke at Google — haven’t watched it yet but there was some good email chatter afterwards.