It’s so clear, so obvious to me that it practically burns in my brain. It keeps me awake at night. It distracts me from food, even from coffee. And yet, it’s so damn elusively difficult to put into words.

Explanation by Example: Ebay is for buying, but there’s only one winner. Craigslist is for selling, when you know what it’s worth. BountyUp is for buying, selling, gift-giving, contests, or charity - when it’s worth sharing. Share the costs - many pledges, one achievement. Share the rewards - pledges can be prepayment for something that wouldn’t otherwise happen (organize your own concert by your favorite band, at your favorite venue.)

All of which comes across as either too verbose, or too vague. In the words of Babak, “I put myself in the position of not knowing anything about the concept and found it to be slightly too ‘mysterious’ to spend any time on or to buy-in to when glancing at the home page.”

People seem to get it, generally; but they only get it in the context of what they would do with it. They don’t see the legs. They don’t see the tail. That ridiculously looooonnnng tail. Consider, perhaps slowly, a few of our proposed bounties:

A new kind of democracy - pledge money to the campaign of any politician who will meet your specific platform requirements. Say, a plan of action on the Kyoto targets.

A new kind of environmentalism - forget “general revenue” donations to big, bloated and ineffectual “non-profits” - make a bounty for an achievable, direct-action goal - say, a drinking-water well in some small village in Somalia. ANYONE can collect that bounty - perhaps it will be the general construction firm that Greenpeace would have eventually hired themselves, but without the overhead.

A new kind of consumer feedback - the “bring back the EV1 bounty”. Pledges are prepayment for the car that GM insists no one wants to buy.

A new kind of dare - ten bucks says Leon won’t eat a live crab. Office betting pools.

But that’s taken a few hundred words. I need less than a dozen.

• Desires on Demand
• Work together to get what you want
• Cooperative buying
• Reverse Auctions
• Put your money where your mouth is.

Can you help me say it any better?