Patent ID: 8756151

Claim:
A method of facilitating collateralized transactions, comprising: allocating, at a transaction computing apparatus, one or more units of reputation to one or more reputation lenders as a result of at least one of an initial allocation of the one or more units of reputation or a purchase of the one or more units of reputation based on an exchange rate, the one or more units of reputation corresponding to a cash value of an exchange rate determined for each of the one or more reputation lenders based on one or more personal attributes of the one or more reputation lenders, the personal attributes comprising one or more of a credit score, information regarding financial transaction history, demographic information, financial records, an activity level, a historical success rate, a rate or number of loans to one or more other borrowers, or a rate of loan defaults by one or more other borrowers; obtaining, at the transaction computing apparatus, a transaction request for a transaction including one or more transaction parameters, the transaction requiring a set number of units of reputation to secure the transaction; associating, with the transaction computing apparatus, the set number of units of reputation from the one or more units of reputation allocated to at least one of the one or more reputation lenders to the transaction request as collateral; distributing, with the transaction computing apparatus, the set number of units of reputation based at least in part on the outcome of the transaction to at least the at least one of the one or more reputation lenders; and modifying, with the transaction computing apparatus, the exchange rate for each of the at least one of the one or more reputation lenders that provided one or more units of reputation as collateral based on the outcome of the transaction.