A couple of months ago I started offering charity bets to anyone willing to bet with me. The winner gains eternal glory, the loser helps the world by donating to effective charities. This was pretty fun and so the thought came up to turn this into a platform (app / website). I here present the current plan I have in mind. There are obviously quite a lot of decisions to make and you can find a full overview of different thoughts and options in this Google Doc. You are very much invited to comment in the Doc, this is work in progress. Also get in touch if you are interested to contribute and we will see if we can make something work.
General idea:
People can place bets and define win conditions for these. Anyone who visits the platform and thinks “huh, this doesn’t sound right”, can challenge their bet. The two have then to agree on odds and on the exact win conditions to make the bet. Alternatively, two people can just register a bet they have already previously made. The platform then sends a reminder on the due date (or in chosen intervals). Once the bet is decided, we suggest a couple of charities and the loser pays through the app using e.g. Stripe or Paypal. In case both parties can’t decide on the outcome, the platform is there to help.
What do users get and what are incentives to use the platform?
- Simply track your bets
- easy payment, charities get suggested by the app
- automatic reminders on due date
- verifiable tracking of whether the debt is paid
- bets can be publicly registered → calibration training and publicity for a prediction
- donation is publicly registered, points are awarded to the winner (as good predictor) and the loser (as benefactor)
- We bring unknown people together to make a bet
- payment is enforced through visibility and public accountability
- EA minded people can leverage their donations by betting
- Platform offers means of mediating between parties
What can you bet on?
Almost anything you like. Someone just has to propose the bet or make a prediction.
How is the platform financially supported?
The idea is to have it run on donations / patreon. Maybe one could think about “every donation goes to the platform with a x% chance”.
What are other possible concepts?
- both pay platform in the beginning. Money is put in a fund. Loser’s money is given to charity, winner gets the money back with interest (high regulatory burden)
- 50% of the money goes to winner, 50% goes to charity (difficult to impossible due to legal reasons I think)
Main questions
- do we want to handle money, or do we not touch money at all and all parties are themselves responsible for donating
- Should participants be able to financially gain? Or do they it just for charitable purposes?
- What is legally possible?
This is the current plan. I think it is a nice little project and I would be very happy about feedback!
PS: you can also vote on / suggest a name! currently on the list: “abettorworld”, “maketheworldbettor“, “betforgood”