Two Platforms, One Idea: A Proposal
The Problem
Existing social platforms optimize for engagement. Engagement means time on site. Time on site means advertising revenue. The result is platforms that are very good at keeping people interacting and very bad at helping them connect — which is one reason why loneliness has gotten worse, not better, in the social media era. At the same time, online marketplaces have remained transactional: people buy and sell without any mechanism for the shared experience of an auction to become the basis of a relationship.
The proposal outlined here addresses both failures through two linked platforms designed to be built and operated together.
Platform One: ShareBid
ShareBid is an auction platform with a novel secondary market built into it.
A seller listing an item sets a desired price outside the standard auction that is conducted without reserve. On the basis of that desired price, shares in the expected sale proceeds are offered to share buyers. Share buyers are not bidding on the item — they are speculating on whether the final auction price will exceed the desired price. If it does, they profit proportionally to their shareholding. If it does not, they lose proportionally.
When the shares are fully sold, the seller has received the desired price and exits the financial picture. From that point, shareholders and auction bidders are the interested parties, with directly opposed interests: shareholders want the final price to be as high as possible, while bidders want to win the item for as little as possible. In effect, the seller has used the share market as a pre-sale insurance policy.
The effect is to create a prediction market wrapped around an auction. Knowledge, taste, and judgment are rewarded alongside successful investment. A participant with genuine expertise in vintage watches, rare books, or mid-century furniture can engage with modest sums and do well on the basis of that expertise. ShareBid is designed to be engaging and fun — a place to test evaluation skills and compete on knowledge rather than wealth alone.
On the question of regulatory classification: legal opinion consulted to date suggests that shares in the proceeds of a single auction sale, resolving within days or weeks of issuance, are unlikely to constitute securities under the Howey test, which requires investment in a common enterprise. This distinguishes ShareBid from existing art investment platforms such as Masterworks, which issue shares in long-term holding vehicles and operate under full SEC registration. The legal question warrants continued attention as the platform develops.
Platform Two: What Do You Want To Do?
What Do You Want To Do? is a social network built on a structural insight absent from existing platforms: that identity-based and interest-based matching produces filter bubbles and mirror relationships, whereas what creates genuine connection between people is shared activity.
The platform matches users not by who they are but by what they want to do — a project they want to build, a skill they want to develop, a thing they want to make happen, or simply someone to talk to. An AI layer handles introductions and light moderation, functioning as a skilled host would: placing compatible people in contact, prompting conversation when it stalls, redirecting when it turns unproductive. The relationship that develops is between the users. AI is kept to its role as tool.
The platform is funded by subscription rather than advertising.
Two Platforms, One Idea: A Proposal The Problem Existing social platforms optimize for engagement. Engagement means time on site. Time on site means advertising revenue. The result is platforms that are very good at keeping people interacting and very bad at helping them connect — which is one reason why loneliness has gotten worse, not better, in the social media era. At the same time, online marketplaces have remained transactional: people buy and sell without any mechanism for the shared experience of an auction to become the basis of a relationship.
The proposal outlined here addresses both failures through two linked platforms designed to be built and operated together.
Platform One: ShareBid ShareBid is an auction platform with a novel secondary market built into it.
A seller listing an item sets a desired price outside the standard auction that is conducted without reserve. On the basis of that desired price, shares in the expected sale proceeds are offered to share buyers. Share buyers are not bidding on the item — they are speculating on whether the final auction price will exceed the desired price. If it does, they profit proportionally to their shareholding. If it does not, they lose proportionally.
When the shares are fully sold, the seller has received the desired price and exits the financial picture. From that point, shareholders and auction bidders are the interested parties, with directly opposed interests: shareholders want the final price to be as high as possible, while bidders want to win the item for as little as possible. In effect, the seller has used the share market as a pre-sale insurance policy.
The effect is to create a prediction market wrapped around an auction. Knowledge, taste, and judgment are rewarded alongside successful investment. A participant with genuine expertise in vintage watches, rare books, or mid-century furniture can engage with modest sums and do well on the basis of that expertise. ShareBid is designed to be engaging and fun — a place to test evaluation skills and compete on knowledge rather than wealth alone.
On the question of regulatory classification: legal opinion consulted to date suggests that shares in the proceeds of a single auction sale, resolving within days or weeks of issuance, are unlikely to constitute securities under the Howey test, which requires investment in a common enterprise. This distinguishes ShareBid from existing art investment platforms such as Masterworks, which issue shares in long-term holding vehicles and operate under full SEC registration. The legal question warrants continued attention as the platform develops.
Platform Two: What Do You Want To Do? What Do You Want To Do? is a social network built on a structural insight absent from existing platforms: that identity-based and interest-based matching produces filter bubbles and mirror relationships, whereas what creates genuine connection between people is shared activity.
The platform matches users not by who they are but by what they want to do — a project they want to build, a skill they want to develop, a thing they want to make happen, or simply someone to talk to. An AI layer handles introductions and light moderation, functioning as a skilled host would: placing compatible people in contact, prompting conversation when it stalls, redirecting when it turns unproductive. The relationship that develops is between the users. AI is kept to its role as tool.
The platform is funded by subscription rather than advertising.