I can't believe I missed the announcement for this. Beautiful site!
The idea of paying 5% to the person who came up with the bet is fantastic. I also like that you aren't running your own different internal currency. For instance, I'm not sure what 100 mc = 1 BTC/NMC means on the moonco.in site, since bitcoins don't have the same value as namecoins, and the ratio of them isn't a meaningful store of value . . .
I really want to use your site, but as I understand the rules, there is a big problem (please correct me if I'm not understanding right): As I understand things, a 100 BTC bet is the same as a 0.01 BTC bet made at exactly the same time for the weighted bet payout, and a 1 BTC bet made on the day the bet is created is the same as a 1 BTC bet made 1 minute before the bet is finished for the non-weighted payout.
Therefore, people can game the system by placing a whole bunch of tiny bets on each side when the bet is created, then a giant bet on the obvious winner right before the bet closes. In this way, they get most of the weighted bet payout, and most of the unweighted payout, without providing predictive value.
If I am wrong, please correct my misunderstanding. If I am right, I suggest that you pay out the whole 90% weighted by "bet size multiplied by the number of minutes in advance the bet was submitted". Therefore a 1 BTC bet submitted 1000 minutes in advance would be equivalent to a 10 BTC bet submitted 100 minutes in advance.
Second suggestion: bets should not be accepted once the outcome is clear. For instance, if the U.S. government announces that they have been having coffee with E.T., any bets placed on that topic after the announcement is made should be voided.
Third, I too would like to hear some comforting words about how you are storing the bitcoins. For instance, are most of the coins stored offline?
Address those three major issues (or fix my brain), and I am all over this.
Other minor suggestions:
- It would be sweet to be able to comment on the bets. One way to do this might be to have topics on THIS forum like "[BOB] Will the U.S. govt admit ET visit before 2013?" - post them in off-topic, and each thread will serve as an advertisement for your site, and your site could link to the threads from each bet.
- Collect 2% of ALL bets for yourself rather than 5% of losing bets. This will discourage obscenely huge bets if someone thinks they have a way to game the system, and you will probably make more money since winning bets will typically be larger. Also it makes your fees appear smaller and it helps prevent you from being accused of bias since the current system gives you more money in fees if a particular side wins.
- Rather than a submission fee, require that the submitter place a minimum bet on at least one side of their their new topic.
- You need standings! I want to be able to see the top predictors by accuracy, earnings, and (most importantly) % increase in portfolio value, broken down by "last 7 days", "last 30 days", "all time", etc. I used to play PPX (the popular science predictions exchange), and the competition for top spots was very addicting!
Anybody looking for possible topics to submit should check out:
http://www.intrade.com/v4/markets/http://tippie.uiowa.edu/iem/markets/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_Science_Predictions_ExchangeThanks!