Here are my ideas on how to fix problems I perceive in the Vote Market.
This would also contain a self-repealing paragraph to fix OV holdings
for the new definitions and to remove VPs (VPs are more valuable than
OVs, and anyway need to be balanced); also, if my fill-lots-of-times
scam worked, I'd be willing to set up the new OV holdings as if I'd only
bought 2 VP with it, and such that I'm released from all but 2 of the
obligations imposed on me during the scam (hopefully returning things to
about normal). I'll write explanations of my changes in square brackets.
{{{
1. The name of this contract is the Reformed Vote Market. The Broker is
responsible for maintaining the Vote Market.
The Broker is BobTHJ.
[Remove "Initially"; that way the contract's text tracks the Broker,
rather than having it as untracked internal contract gamestate.]2. Ordinary Votes (OVs) are a currency used in the Vote Market. The Broker is the recordkeeper of OV. [Because it's impossible to own fewer than 0 of an asset.] 3. At any time a party CAN post a Sell Ticket by announcement. A Sell Ticket must include: * A description of an action that the party is able to take. * A cost in OVs If it becomes impossible for the party to perform the specified action, the Sell Ticket expires and ceases to exist. 4. Any party CAN fill an existing Sell Ticket by announcement if e has at least as many OVs as its cost. When e does so, a number of OVs equal to that Sell Ticket's specified cost is transferred to the party who posted the Sell Ticket. The party who posted the Sell Ticket is then obligated to take the action described in the Sell Ticket as soon as possible. However, if for any reason during the 48 hours following the filling of a Sell Ticket it becomes impossible for the party who posted the Sell Ticket to perform the specified action then e is released from such obligation. When a Sell Ticket is filled, it expires and ceases to exist. 5. At any time a party CAN post a Buy Ticket by announcement. A Buy Ticket must include: * A description of an action * A cost in one or more currencies (typically OVs), which may be conditional or variable as long as it can be determined with certainty when that ticket is filled * Optionally, a set of target parties. If not specified, this defaults to the set of all parties to the Vote Market agreement. Only parties designated as targets may fill a ticket. A Buy Ticket expires and ceases to exist if it becomes impossible for any party to perform the specified action. 6. Any party CAN fill an existing Buy Ticket by announcing it; when e does so, that Buy Ticket's specified cost is transferred to the filling party. If this transfer succeeded, the filling party is then obligated to take the action specified by the Buy Ticket as soon as possible. A Buy Ticket that has been filled expires and ceases to exist unless otherwise specified by its poster. 7. Any player may join the Vote Market by announcement. Upon a first-class player joining the Vote Market, 20 OVs are created in the possession of that player. [20 rather than 50, and OVs are less valuable than VPs. This is to prevent stockpiling of OVs, and to prevent massive debts (e.g. comex's) which have no realistic chance of being escaped from.] 8. Any party with 20 or more OVs may cease to be bound by the Vote Market agreement by announcement. Upon such an announcement 20 OVs held by that player are destroyed. A party MAY NOT cease to be party to this agreement by any other means. Regardless of the above, no party may cease to be bound by this agreement if that party has an unfulfilled obligation imposed upon them by this agreement. [Keep a zero-sum here.] 9. Any party may amend this agreement with the majority consent of the other parties. 10. An "indebted party" is a party with fewer than 20 OVs. By announcement, any party to this contract may act on behalf of an indebted party to cause em to post either of the following Sell Tickets, specifying any cost in OVs that is at least 1 OV: a) SELL TICKET. On an ordinary Agoran Decision specified by the filler, vote so that at the end of its voting period, the poster of this ticket has cast at least as many FOR votes on the specified decision as this ticket's cost in OVs, or alternatively refund the cost of this ticket to the filler if the specified decision becomes Democratic. b) SELL TICKET. On an ordinary Agoran Decision specified by the filler, vote so that at the end of its voting period, the poster of this ticket has cast at least as many AGAINST votes on the specified decision as this ticket's cost in OVs, or alternatively refund the cost of this ticket to the filler if the specified decision becomes Democratic. If it becomes impossible for an indebted party to simultaneously fill all the accepted Sell Tickets that they have created due to this agreement, they may refund the cost of one or more of those tickets to eir fillers to release emself from eir obligations under the tickets whose costs were refunded. [OK, this is a large change. Instead of giving people a fixed length of time to recover, instead OVs are given a fixed value, of 1 OV = 1 vote on an Ordinary Proposal. This means that OVs know have a known (and rather small) value, and that when people are in debt they have a known path to recovery, by voting on proposals people want them to vote on.] 11. For the purposes of Buy and Sell Tickets, if the specified action is to vote in a certain manner on an Agoran Decision, a party only fills eir obligation to take the specified action if at the end of that decision's voting period e has cast a number of valid votes equal to eir voting limit on that decision and all those votes are in the manner described in the Buy or Sell Ticket. 12. As its cost a Buy or Sell Ticket may specify the word "AUCTION". At any time, a target party may place a bid on a Ticket with a cost of AUCTION by announcement. Such a bid should specify an amount of currency (or currencies). At any time the poster of a Ticket with a cost of AUCTION may accept any bid on that Ticket which has not been retracted. The currency (or currencies) specified in that bid become the Cost of the Ticket, and the party who placed that bid becomes the filler of that ticket. 13. Whenever there are fewer OVs in existence than 20 times the number of parties to this contract, a number of OVs equal to the difference is created in the possession of the Lost and Found Department. Whenever the Lost and Found Department has at least as many OVs as there are parties to the contract, one OV is transferred from it to each party to this contract. [Zero-summing.] 14. Whenever a party owns more than 40 OVs, any party may transfer the OVs e owns in excess of 40 to the Lost and Found department by announcement. [Preventing OV stockpiling, which I think could lead to problems down the road.] }}} I'd appreciate input on this, and also what an equitable initial distribution of OVs would be (based on current VP holdings, and also what the current VP holdings would be barring scams, which would probably be more equitable). -- ais523
