Assurance Contract vs Kickstarter: What Is the Difference?
June 2, 2026
Kickstarter is a plain assurance contract that refunds you if a project fails; a dominant assurance contract refunds you plus a bonus, which is exactly the upgrade Pieces is built on.
The simplest way to understand a dominant assurance contract is to compare it to something you already know: Kickstarter.
Kickstarter is an assurance contract
Kickstarter is a textbook assurance contract. Backers pledge money toward a funding goal. If the goal is met by the deadline, cards are charged and the project goes ahead. If the goal is missed, no one is charged and everyone walks away even. It is a clean way to coordinate a crowd around a goal, and it works.
But it has a built-in weakness. If you want a project to succeed, your individually rational move is to wait. Let other people pledge, watch whether momentum builds, and commit at the last minute (or not at all). When everyone hedges like this, good projects stall below their goal. This is the free-rider problem.
A dominant assurance contract fixes the incentive
A dominant assurance contract changes one thing: if the project fails to fund, backers get their money back plus a bonus. Suddenly there is no reason to hold out. Backing pays off whether the project succeeds (you get the thing) or fails (you get a bonus). In game-theory terms, backing becomes a dominant strategy.
| Kickstarter (assurance) | Dominant assurance | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal met | Project is made | Project is made |
| Goal missed | Refund only | Refund plus a bonus |
| Incentive to back | Weak | Strong |
| Who pays the bonus | No one | Bonders |
Where Pieces fits
Pieces takes the dominant assurance contract and applies it to digital content: music, art, writing, video, and files that would otherwise be impossible to sell once they are public. Creators set a goal, deadline, and kickback. Backers fund the goal. Bonders stake money up front that becomes the backer bonus if the Piece fails, and earns them a kickback if it succeeds.
So if you have ever used Kickstarter, Pieces is the same coordination tool with a better deal for the people who show up: when a campaign falls short, backers are refunded plus a bonus rather than just walking away even.
Frequently asked questions
Is Kickstarter an assurance contract? +
Yes. Kickstarter is a classic assurance contract: backers pledge money toward a goal, the project is only charged and made if the goal is met, and pledges are refunded if it is not.
What does a dominant assurance contract add? +
A dominant assurance contract adds a bonus paid to backers when a project fails to fund. That bonus turns backing into a dominant strategy, removing the incentive to wait and see whether others pledge first.
Where does the bonus come from? +
On Pieces, the bonus paid to backers when a project falls short comes from the bonders: supporters who stake money up front to stand behind a creator. If the project funds, bonders get their stake back plus a kickback; if it does not, their stake is distributed to the backers as the bonus.