2) Instead on the lame Intrade, let's just put the money into FR.
3) Easy, people gamble X amount of dollars, it would be easier to match folks up. Say Kevmo and me bet one hundred dollars on the Ecat, I obviously don't believe it, Kevmo does. Say Kevmo wins our bet. I would then post that Kevmo has won this bet and I have donated one hundred dollars to FR in his name as per agreed upon rules.
4) While theoretically it could go on forever, anyone who has done the chess board bet where you double your bets per square knows it doesn't take long to owe more than the Earth's GDP.
Side issues:
a) When will we just call it quits? If nothing happens in two years, I might get a might bit bored.
b) What constitutes a win? Having cousin Cletus verify that his ecat is a hundredbazilions milllion time more efficient than Texas Red hots doesn't, at least to me, constitute much proof.
c) We need to agree on testing methodology, who we would accepts as valid scientists (please, no one select Joseph Newman) and test time. Boiling water for five minutes might seem impressive to the folks on the left side of the bell curve but most folks would not be too impressed.
d)SO, we need a set time of running on it's own, or as Rossi says, "Self Sustaining". I would prefer that any device should be able to power itself but some might consider that a large barrier to entry (so what?).
e) All device must exist and run in an essentially hermetically sealed chamber with all its reactants identified, weighed and their isotopes before and after.
Please no B.S, if you can't beat this guy:
And especially if you're not married to his wife, Morgan Fairchild.
II) Should we have an entry for the best line of B.S. about someone's device how the mafia had it and the kidnapped the designer and now he can't get it to work so they're threatening his wife and he needs us to donate money to get his wife back.
This thing could take on a international life of its own.