Incentives and avoiding enshittification

[BGebken]

One of the things that I have been thinking about is the incentives and challenges of scaling the platform.

One idea that I had was borrowing a "smart contract" type of idea. For many users the goal of using a dating app is to delete it (I recognize that isn't the case for all users, since some are more focused on seeking casual dates). What if users could opt into putting set amounts of money into escrow, and then when they want to commit to a relationship with another user, they both vote yes and it closes their escrowed amounts - giving half of the money to the platform and half back to the users. This would incentivize the users to really commit with a clear milestone, and would give the platform a sustainable incentive to build features to support that segment of the users.

I believe this could really help with sustainability and scaling without falling into the "enshittification" which we see every major platform slip into over time (either by intentional design or gradual market pressures).

I recognize this type of monetary idea might not be welcome at all - so I totally understand if the platform doesn't want to explore this. I just wanted to offer it since I think that as more users join, covering server and development costs will be challenging