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Wow. Pratt's obsession with Kickstarter "ripping off" Fundable is especially silly considering that both are essentially variants of Kelsey and Schneier's Str
by mbrubeck 17y ago
Wow. Pratt's obsession with Kickstarter "ripping off" Fundable is especially silly considering that both are essentially variants of Kelsey and Schneier's Street Performer Protocol, published in 1998 [1]. (That paper is not even the first instance of the basic idea, just one of the most well-known.)
Edited to add: I'd be really interested to see one of these sites implement the Rational Street Performer Protocol [2], which essentially means that each donor pledges matching funds ("I'll donate $X for every $Y that anyone else pledges, up to a maximum of $Z"). This gives individuals a stronger incentive to pledge more; the hard part is coming up with a simple explanation that first-time users will understand.
[1]: http://www.schneier.com/paper-street-performer.html http://www.schneier.com/paper-street-performer.html
[2]: http://www.logarithmic.net/pfh/rspp http://www.logarithmic.net/pfh/rspp
- NathanKP 17y agoWould you happen to know why the Austin police were after the company? Sounds like a messy soap opera, but I'm curious about what went so wrong.
- cfinke 17y agoSounds like Pratt is framing it as his partner making it up as a scare tactic to try and acquire his portion of the company.
- nitrogen 17y agoIs there a list of websites that provide services based on the street performer protocol (or something similar)? I like the whole escrow release idea, kind of how Blender was made open source.
- bokonist 17y agoYeah, the basic idea is clever, but hardly novel. Back in 2004 my friend and I entered our college's business plan competition with a plan for a music site based on this kind of funding model. We originally got the idea from an article on corante.com.
- carbon8 17y agoIf any site could claim credit for making the broader notion of crowd funding mainstream it's kiva. There are now a whole range of sites, including many niche sites, that are variations on the same theme. Claiming ownership of the idea of crowd funding and singling out kickstarter is incredibly myopic.