Facilitating crowdfunding through Steem has a lot of potential, great to see you get started on it!
One question, in regards to this point:
If the goal is not reached the payout will still be sent to the
applicant but if the post collects more than the applicant needs
then the remaining SBD will roll-over to the next project.
Does that mean that if I, as a supporter, donate to a particular project, my funds might be used for something other than that project if it raises too much money?
The general concept of supporting innovation is sound, but I wouldn't be happy if my donations went to a project I didn't care about.
interesting
I have given this some thought and I think you are right, I will change it so that any surplus is given to the initial applicant.
That's awesome, I think it's really important.
Another thing you might want to consider is how you handle underfunded projects. If an applicant estimates they need a certain amount and they don't get it, what impact is that going to have on the project? Are the supporters going to get the value that they thought they were paying for?
I don't mean to undercut your idea at all, I think it's great for community collaboration. I just think it's a pretty complex endeavor and you want to mitigate disputes before they happen.
The most important thing is that you're open to constructive feedback and you're willing to iterate on the plan. I wish you the best of luck!
At first I thought of returning the money to backers if the target was not meet, but this brings more complexity as not all votes are worth the same and that could bring all other kind of disputes.
So if a backer asks for 300 dollars and gets 50, he will receive 50 and try to use it in the best way possible. Backers votes will still be used towards that cause and the applicant will have to look for other sources of funding as well.
I really appreciate your input as I want this to be a community effort. Feel free to join our steemit.chat channel for further discussion.
Thanks a lot!
One idea for you is to have a minimum and a maximum funding target, and allow applicants to describe what they plan to accomplish at each of those extremes.
If the campaign doesn't reach the minimum target, the funds should be returned to the patrons (I think you have to figure out a solution for that, regardless). However, dependent on where the project lands on the scale between minimum and maximum, patrons can have reasonable expectations as to the output of the project.
Also, there's an opportunity for stretch goals at certain milestones beyond the maximum funding target. If you wanted to do that, I'd just scrap the maximum funding target entirely, and just have a minimum with multiple stretch goals beyond it.
Again, I love the problem you're trying to solve, keep at it!