Here is the idea:
Set up a way with Bitcoin for a large amount of people to fund something and "vote" on it in a unanimous way where those who do not agree with the vote do not have to contribute.
Here is the summary:
You get a group together with a common goal. They all pledge so much money until enough people have joined and put their money toward it. Then the final distribution of the money is determined and if enough of the group agrees, then their money is put toward the final goal.
Example:
A group of people want to purchase a TV commercial. The organizer of the idea says "We will need around $10,000 to produce and run this commercial", we are asking for 100 people to contribute $100 each. People start putting $100 in their wallet pledged toward the commercial project. Once the number is reached the organizer says "We were able to find a production company to make the commercial for $2,500 and negotiated a slot on the Sunday business show for $5,500 totaling $8,000. Please vote if you support this plan by the end of the week. Supporters all move their $100 into the pot. If they do not reach $8,000 in the given time, the money is refunded to each person and they work toward another solution. If the goal is reached, the money is transferred to the production company and the TV station and the commercial is produced.
How Bitcoin can help:
Same thing, a common goal. The guidelines are outlined. The organizer gives a Bitcoin address for the project with a goal in BTC. People pledge by transferring BTC to a dedicated wallet. They then send .0001 BTC to the Bitcoin address (other numbers can be used to signal different options. ex. .0002 BTC indicates preference 'B'). The .0001 BTC is refunded and that pledge is added to the tally. That wallet address is monitored to see if the money is removed. If the money is removed, the tally goes down indicating the pledger is no longer interested. Once the pledges reach the goal, the organizer puts forth the solution and the needed BTC. Pledgers indicate their approval by sending the full amount of the pledge. If the goal is not met, the BTC is refunded to those wallets and work continues. Otherwise, the organizer executes the solution and the goal is satisfied.
Example with BTC:
A group of people want to purchase a TV commercial. The organizer of the idea says "We will need around $10,000 to purchase and run this commercial. Here is the BTC address to pledge to: xxxx, indicate your preference: send .0001 for Sunday news program, send .0002 for Monday evening talk show, send .0003 for Saturday morning weekly roundup program.", we are asking for 100 people to pledge 20 BTC each. People start putting 20 BTC into a wallet. They send .0001, 2 or 3 to the address and keep the rest of the funds in their wallet. Once the number gets close to 200 BTC the organizer says "We were able to find a production company to make the commercial for $2,500 and negotiated a slot on the Sunday business show for $5,500 totalling $8,000, at today's rate that would be 160 BTC. Please vote if you support this plan by the end of the week by sending your full amount to address xxxx. Supporters start transferring 20 BTC into the pot each. If they do not reach 160 BTC in the given time, the money is transferred back to the originating addresses and they continue to try to find another solution. If the goal is reached, the BTC is either converted to $$$ to pay the companies, or the originator talks the companies into accepting BTC and transfers the funds for payment and the commercial is produced.
Possible use cases:
A bunch of Bitcoin users buy an island (
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=82060.0). Each person who contributed will be able to prove their membership on the island by showing up on the island and paying with BTC from their pledge wallet.
Club membership (dues require X amount spent on pledged programs per year).
Funding for BTC project
Charitable contributions
Startup company
Fund a movie/commercial
disaster relief
political contributions
Fund a piece of art
much more...similar to projects on
http://www.kickstarter.comA web page could be set up for this with the tally and pledges all monitored by monitoring the chain. You could also have the option of allowing people to pledge their set aside BTC to several projects and whichever the pledger supports first will get the BTC and the tally for the other projects will reflect the decrease in their own pledge.
The main point of trust is in the final transfer, trusting the organizer to use the money to fund the project as opposed to taking the money and splitting. The web site could keep track of past projects for each organizer and show how well they were handled. But for most of the project, the money sits in your own wallet.
Any thoughts? Tweaks, downfalls?
