I’d argue that there are actually very few problems that are solved by these contracts, and not solved by more traditional mechanisms like taxes, clubs/churches, private investors, etc.
Voting for third-party candidates. Organizing marches and rallies. Things like the Free State Project (why aren’t lots of other subcultures and political factions doing that?) Sweet parties at my house.
Now that I think more about it, clubs/churches do this sort of thing all the time informally, e.g. survey the crowd and ask how many people would come to the event if it were held, and then hold the event iff at least x people say they would come, with social disapproval being the punishment for people who say they would come and then don’t.
And of course, the sort of things Kickstarter funds. So I guess that’s part of my answer right there.
Sorry, I wasn’t looking for things that an assurance contract could be used for, I was looking for things which are significantly improved by them (unsolvable without). I don’t think assurance contracts make any of those things particularly more common/feasible than without such contracts.
The original question was “why aren’t they widely used”, and my answer is “because they’re not that useful on the relevant margins”.
[note: I don’t believe they’re useless, just that I don’t think they’re important enough to be confused that you don’t see them all that much. I do believe that the IDEA of assurance contracts has contributed a lot to getting crowdfunding platforms going, but MOST of their projects are successful due to a functioning payments platform, more than the assurance contract portion of the service.]
I think voting for third-party candidates would be significantly improved by assurance contracts. Ditto for marches & rallies, and things like the Free State Project. (Imagine how much of a fail the FSP would have been if they used a more traditional method.) And I think maybe also kickstarter stuff? IDK, maybe this disagreement comes down to a disagreement about the meaning of “significantly.”
I’d argue that there are actually very few problems that are solved by these contracts, and not solved by more traditional mechanisms like taxes, clubs/churches, private investors, etc.
Can you name a few?
Voting for third-party candidates. Organizing marches and rallies. Things like the Free State Project (why aren’t lots of other subcultures and political factions doing that?) Sweet parties at my house.
Now that I think more about it, clubs/churches do this sort of thing all the time informally, e.g. survey the crowd and ask how many people would come to the event if it were held, and then hold the event iff at least x people say they would come, with social disapproval being the punishment for people who say they would come and then don’t.
And of course, the sort of things Kickstarter funds. So I guess that’s part of my answer right there.
Sorry, I wasn’t looking for things that an assurance contract could be used for, I was looking for things which are significantly improved by them (unsolvable without). I don’t think assurance contracts make any of those things particularly more common/feasible than without such contracts.
The original question was “why aren’t they widely used”, and my answer is “because they’re not that useful on the relevant margins”.
[note: I don’t believe they’re useless, just that I don’t think they’re important enough to be confused that you don’t see them all that much. I do believe that the IDEA of assurance contracts has contributed a lot to getting crowdfunding platforms going, but MOST of their projects are successful due to a functioning payments platform, more than the assurance contract portion of the service.]
I think voting for third-party candidates would be significantly improved by assurance contracts. Ditto for marches & rallies, and things like the Free State Project. (Imagine how much of a fail the FSP would have been if they used a more traditional method.) And I think maybe also kickstarter stuff? IDK, maybe this disagreement comes down to a disagreement about the meaning of “significantly.”