I lent money on prosper, and was paid back.<p>However, I think the article is mostly on the mark.  I only bid on loans where the person was buying a computer or web design services, and I used it as an opportunity to tell the borrower about my freelance business.  I don't think I got any business from it, but the $50 that I lent out every few months came back.<p>I think the volume of investment that prosper can currently handle is low.  There are just a few out of the hundreds of loans that are on there at any one point in time that are "real" loans.  The rest are floating other debt, fraud, loonies, business people inflating themselves and claiming to borrow to "re-invest" in other prosper loans.<p>It is a good idea at it's heart.  I can see a community of people like the ones ont his board funding low-capital startups that way.