"Lowe: "There’s been a bit of an ongoing debate about whether or not Kiva is what it seems. ... A Kiva lender and borrower are connected because: The lender ties the fate of hir money to the borrower’s ability to repay. In other words, if Wayan Puspa in Bali gets a bad harvest, Bob Smith in Idaho won’t get his $25 back. This is why Bob gets updates on Wayan’s business - because Bob has effectively invested his money in Wayan’s business. ... At the end of the day, you’re still investing your money in someone else’s livelihood. I think of it like swiping my credit card to pay for something. I’m still liable to pay for it, even though the details are complex and no money will leave my account for another 30 days. Kiva has channeled $100m in funds to microentrepreneurs in only 4 years. There’s no way that would be possible without working with their MFI field partners, and without operational abstractions that strike a difficult balance between creating a personalized user experience and..." - Gerrit Eicker