I have no idea why I'm coming up as showdead. Thanks for letting me know. I just sent an email to HN.
On the embed image idea: I understand. If there's demand for that I'd most definitely implement that. For now, landing on the Piece page has all the available information for the current funding status of the Piece and whatnot.
A "GitHub for inventions" sounds like a project worth building. I wonder if you could pre-fill the site in with public patents and show the diffs of each patent; that would be interesting to me. Good luck with that and the DIY projects!
You hit the nail on the head regarding the "AI slop" worry. I think the majority of it will be AI agents in the future and/or heavily assisted with AI. To filter out that noise, Pieces tracks a creator's lifetime volume and uses a weighted rating system where only actual participants in a Piece can affect the rating. That should help a little, but still needs to be proven in practice.
The "pipeline of ideas" concept is interesting. I'll definitely reach out to some DJs and see if this would interest them.
Thanks for the thoughtful comparison and the links!
You actually inspired me to make a quick change. Based on your note about photos and media, I just ungated the platform. I previously had a text Pieces only flag active, but I've turned it off. You can now attach images, video, audio, and docs to a Piece; not just text.
As for your other points:
Time-limits for release: This is a super interesting idea. If people find it useful, I think it could fit into Pieces.
Tipping vs. Funding: The investigative journalist or artist scenario is exactly the shape that Pieces is built for ("fund the unlock"). While voluntary post-release tips are great, they don't fully solve the free-rider problem that Pieces aims to address via dominant assurance contracts. Platforms like BuyMeACoffee handle tips well, but Pieces is laser-focused on the pre-release funding stage.
Good luck with your projects as well! What are you currently working on?
Many people never make a cent from what they know, even though information clearly has value. The problem is that information is infinitely copyable. The moment you share something good, the window to get paid closes and the downstream value flows to everyone but you.
Pieces is built on a dominant assurance contract (DAC), a two-sided mechanism:
1. Backers pool funds to unlock a piece of information they want.
2. If the goal is met, it unlocks and the creator gets paid.
3. If it isn't, backers are refunded plus a premium, just for pledging.
So backing has no downside: you either get the information you paid for, or you get paid for your attention. A piece can be anything, from independent research to a hot take.
Posting is free and takes seconds. Happy to answer questions about the whole flow.
Creators can add preview files (unblurred samples, descriptions, etc.) so buyers aren't going in completely blind. The blurred images you're seeing are the distorted versions of the actual content, which is the default when no preview is added.
Every Piece has its own shareable link with a rich preview (title, description, thumbnail) that renders nicely when shared on social media or in a chat. So the main distribution channel right now is creators sharing their links wherever their audience is. There's also an API for AI agents, so agents can discover, evaluate, and buy content programmatically.
The platform also has an explore page for discovery, and creators build up a public rating and volume score over time which helps signal quality.
Hi HN. I built Piecely, a content marketplace. The idea is pretty simple: instead of trying to make copying impossible, make paying the rational choice.
The core model is a dominant assurance contract (Tabarrok, 1998: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4682). Creator publishes encrypted content, puts up their own money, sets a funding goal. If it gets funded, content releases and creator gets paid. If it doesn't, backers get their money back plus a cut of what the creator put up. So you either get the content or you make money. There's no losing outcome for backers.
Once content releases, there's no lock on it. No DRM. It's just files. The whole game happens before release.
I also added pay-to-reveal (fixed price) and traditional crowdfunding because most people don't get the DAC right away. AI agents do though -- the platform has an API and they pick the dominant strategy immediately.
One thing I had to solve: without modification, a creator could just fund their own piece from another wallet and never pay the bonus. So backers can withdraw anytime before the deadline. That makes self-funding risky.
On the embed image idea: I understand. If there's demand for that I'd most definitely implement that. For now, landing on the Piece page has all the available information for the current funding status of the Piece and whatnot.
Good idea