How Not To Promote Your New Startup
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.)<p>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.<p>[1]: <a href="http://www.schneier.com/paper-street-performer.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.schneier.com/paper-street-performer.html</a><p>[2]: <a href="http://www.logarithmic.net/pfh/rspp" rel="nofollow">http://www.logarithmic.net/pfh/rspp</a>