I think this could be nice but it needs some thinking.
So the idea is that the robot would supervise an auction on IRC.
The seller tells the robot (Bot) to open an auction for an item (Item) until a deadline (Dl).
Bot opens a channel #auction-[short name for Item]
It also sets the topic as something like "Auction for [full description of Item] until Dl. No starting price."
To place a bid, a user just enters his amount in one of these format:
123.456 BTC : plain explicit bid (unit may also be bc, kBTC,...)
123.456 : bid with no monetary unit (assuming BTC)
+1 : relative bid (1 BTC more than last bid)
'35: implicit format. For instance after several bids of value close to 34000, '35 would actually mean 35000.
Or after several bids such as 10.29, 10.32, 10.33, '35 would mean 10.35
The main rule for the robot would be to take the value closest to the previous bid, keeping it beyond a 110% increase. For instance, after a bid of 1000 (with no decimal), then '20 would mean 1020, and not 20000. If no interpretation can fit the 110%, then the robot takes the closest and ask for confirmation.
At then end the robot adjudicates the auction by declaring the winner. He then sends a log of the whole auction to the seller.
Here is an exemple of how such an auction would look like.
-- Bot sets topic to "Auction for an ... until ..."
-- Alice joins channel
Alice> 10
Bot> Alice leads at 10 BTC
-- Bob joins channel
Bob> ;;lead
Bot> Alice leads at 10 BTC
Bob> +1
Bot> Bob leads at 11 BTC
Alice> 20
Bot> Alice: Do you confirm bid at 20 BTC, which is more than 110% of previous bid ?
Alice> y
Bot> Alice leads at 20 BTC
and so on until :
Bot> Auction has ended. Alice wins the auction with 30 BTC. Congratulations.
* Bot sends log of this auction to the seller who will contact Alice for transaction.
I know there is biddingpound.com but I just don't like websites.
