BountyUp is essentially a tool that facilitates collaborative commerce. Traditionally we have had private goods, which have a subjective value to us and to which we can also ascribe some sort of monetary value. Examples of this would be: an ice cream cone, a car, a plane, or a building; all of which we can define a value for, and then determine if we want to buy it or not.

On the other side of the spectrum of goods have been the public goods, for which we also have a subjective value, but which are too large or nebulous for us to accurately attribute a monetary value. Examples of these would be: clean air, a legal system, space exploration and parks. All of these are goods that we want, but nothing to which, as individuals, we are able to ascribe a monetary value. Traditionally, again, we have paid taxes and elected people who, presumably, know where these funds should be directed in order to meet the needs of the general population.

BountyUp has created one of the first tools for a marketplace that addresses what I’d like to refer to as “a semi-public” (or semi-private) good. An organization such as NASA that can define the success metrics of any particular task (in the form of a Bounty) and put money on the table, allowing any other organization to add to the Bounty. If NASA, for example, starts a Bounty for setting up a station on the moon, then anybody could contribute towards that particular success metric (designing a particular type of rover, or engine, or camera) and individuals or institutions can contribute, knowing that if the Bounty is not completed by a particular deadline, everybody gets their money back.

Or say you want a park with a place for your children to play. You might want to put 50 bucks down for a park with certain dimensions and a swing set. Well, people with children in your city might also feel that they would like to, essentially buy a park for 50 dollars. Get 10,000 people together, and you have a half-million dollar Bounty. A real estate developer can buy a piece of property, plant some grass, put in a swing-set - and collect the Bounty. What if the city put in the park, and collected the Bounty? They could even put some money towards a Bounty for a mass-transit system, or a sewage treatment plant, or anything else - and the people that value that, can contribute towards that Bounty. Crowdfunding as a fully distributed, decentralized method of acquiring semi-public goods - that, themselves, are crowdsourced for delivery? Yes, governments of the world… you too can evolve.