10 Feb 2020 Search

Developers would prefer to release software at a high quality level. Users prefer to use software at a high quality level. However, firms are incentivized to release software at a lower quality level than would be chosen by either developers or users.

How do you design a system that lets users quantify and hedge the risks of low-quality software, while compensating developers to do the extra work to bring the software up to a higher quality level?

A variety of systems have been proposed, including subscriptions, bounties, and dominant assurance contracts. A market for trading software issues describes another possibility: futures contracts on bugs/tasks.

A market (play money only) based on this research is set for a soft launch the first week of March. For a demo, account, and some free (play) money, please contact me directly.