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Comment by stcredzero | Hacker News Reader

A coworker of mine once made this proposal. 5 of us would start a company. The company would buy key man insurance for everyone, then go on a company team building trip. On this trip, we'd all skydive, but one of the 5 parachutes would be non-functional...Profit!

This coworker of mine soon after left the company by storming out of the meeting room and slamming the door, then took up playing online poker for a living.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tontine

There's a short term group loaning 'game' in Cambodia called and based on Tontine, which I would guess comes from the French influence.

The game is played by groups who agree on a monthly stake. Each month players offer an interest rate they're willing to pay (more like a tax), the highest rate is awarded the collective pot, less the interest which is redistributed to the other 'living' players.

Players who have already received the pot are 'dead' and do not collect their share of interest in future rounds (meaning they must pay the full stake). Once everyone is dead, the game ends. Some will have come out ahead, others may have been able to get a lump of cash when they needed it

Also in Thailand and Laos. These games are hugely popular. Called a "share" in Thailand and "houay" in Laos.

It's some basic banking services for the unbanked in essence.

How is it prevented that they get "stuck" because no participant needs the money right now and would rather wait and see if someone else is willing to pay an interest?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but how is this different than a pyramid scheme?

From my understanding, there's nobody added on while it is running, but a fixed group from start to finish.

My first introduction to this concept was through the wonderful https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061204/ (The Wrong Box). Highly recommended.

It would be pretty interesting to make an Ethereum based Tontine system

Oh it's been done https://tontinetrust.com/

That's awesome, thanks! So is this: https://tontine.com/

Still popular in France, in 1906 they fell out of favour in the US due to the insurance company issuers tampering with the membership ledgers & then withdrawing too much investor capital as "insurer profits".

Some things never change.

I can't tell, is that a real site or a joke?

It has to be a joke as it is illegal in the US.

Edit: Upon further reading, seems like someone is actively trying to make this happen.

https://support.tontinetrust.com/knowledge_base/topics/how-t...

Anyone else get acquainted with tontine from the simpsons? I watched that episode as a kid and still remember it to this day.

I learned about them from a MASH episode in which Colonel Potter was the last surviving member of a WW1 tontine.

http://www.simpsonsworld.com/video/320768579741

No, The Butt by Will Self.

Key man insurance policies explicitly exclude parachute jumps.

I know because one of the founders of the company I work for used to jump, and he had to give up his hobby for that reason.

I think you'll find that key-man insurance policies contain clauses explicitly to prohibit these sorts of shenanigans.

I guess that was around 2005? What does he do now?

The crypto boom really took me back to that time. Suddenly everybody was a poker expert and nobody ever spoke about their losses. Friend of mine made 120k lucking out on a tilt and then lost it all before paying any of the required taxes. (In some countries he could deduct the losses, but here he couldn't.)

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