# why do Lending Club, Prosper etc register in America and not in the Principality of Sealand?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lending-club-prosper-etc-register-in-america-and-not-in-the-principality-of-sealand/578994>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 19, 2011, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lending-club-prosper-etc-register-in-america-and-not-in-the-principality-of-sealand/578994 "2011-04-19T20:08:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![code\_grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@code\_grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/code_grey)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lending-club-prosper-etc-register-in-america-and-not-in-the-principality-of-sealand/578994/1 "2011-04-19T20:08:22Z")

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or maybe in Second Life in the Ayn Rand quadrant. In other words, if it is all in the internet, why should they place themselves under purview of Western laws and regulations? Are there no flags of convenience type of places that don’t care about what notes you sell to whom?

Would American government start blocking their Sealand based servers if they tried that?

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**Author:** ![code\_grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@code\_grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/code_grey)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lending-club-prosper-etc-register-in-america-and-not-in-the-principality-of-sealand/578994/2 "2011-04-19T20:25:20Z")

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oops, never mind. It sounds like I confused them with the likes of Kiva. Lending Club actually uses American credit scores, lends to Americans and may rely on American legal system to get loans paid back if necessary.

I guess if Kiva were less of a charity, it would have made a more interesting study of a lending system with minimal government enforcement.

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-lending-club-prosper-etc-register-in-america-and-not-in-the-principality-of-sealand/578994/3 "2011-04-19T20:43:56Z")

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Because they don’t want minimal government interference.