It's a bit of a pipe dream, but it seems to me that this is a perfect use-case for digital signatures. If I sign over debt to Bill, and he signed it over to Jim and Nancy, and then Jim collects it and Nancy signs it over to Stu, and then Stu find that it's already been collected, then Stu and Jim can compare provenances and sue/beat-up/whatever Bill.
The real question is how to make digital signatures work for people at that level. That's a really tough question; I don't have the answer there. Maybe Excel could have some sort of row-signature cell type, which could stack (e.g. First Martian Bank would sign each row upon issuance, then each seller would just sign it again). It'd be even better if it weren't just a statically-signed document, but could also document stuff like 'Joe Smith paid down $320 in principal.'
Gosh, almost sounds like Bitcoin or a similar protocol would make sense here …
The real question is how to make digital signatures work for people at that level. That's a really tough question; I don't have the answer there. Maybe Excel could have some sort of row-signature cell type, which could stack (e.g. First Martian Bank would sign each row upon issuance, then each seller would just sign it again). It'd be even better if it weren't just a statically-signed document, but could also document stuff like 'Joe Smith paid down $320 in principal.'
Gosh, almost sounds like Bitcoin or a similar protocol would make sense here …