** JOB 0417 ** IPD/TOUREXEC ** THE ITERATED PRISONER'S DILEMMA ** PRE-LAUNCH **

$IPD · a token you have to play

Your money is in the vault. To get it out, you have to trust a stranger.

Every $IPD trade pays a fee into holder vaults. You can see your vault. You can't withdraw it. The only way out is the Table: an iterated prisoner's dilemma against another holder, one chip a round. Each round you both secretly choose to cooperate or steal.

Both cooperateYou both win. Your chip comes back with up to 50% on top.

You steal, they trustYou take their chip.

They steal, you trustYou lose your chip to them.

You both stealYou both lose it all. Both chips go to the Commons.

Open your vault Read the docs →

The winning program, 1980Fortran

      FUNCTION K92R(J,M,K,L,R,JA)
C     BY ANATOL RAPOPORT.
C     COOPERATE FIRST. AFTER THAT,
C     DO WHATEVER THEY DID LAST.
C     J = THEIR LAST MOVE (0=C, 1=D)
      K92R = J
      RETURN
      END

Table feedSimulated

Vaults · locked

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The Commons

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Co-op bonus today

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Rounds today

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Co-op rate

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Pre-launch. Every figure on this page is simulated.

Form 02 · The four cellsIPD/TOUREXECOne round · one chip

The rules fit in a box

Four cells.

Each round you and your opponent both put one chip on the table, then choose at the same time. Neither of you sees the other's move until both are sealed.

They cooperate

They defect

You cooperate

You defect

FIG. 1 Payoff per chip staked, at the full co-op bonus. Big numbers are tournament points. Full payoff table and math in the docs.

Form 03 · Round robinIPD/TOUREXECTen entries · run it yourself

In 1980 they submitted programs. Now you play by hand.

The tournament.

In 1980, Robert Axelrod invited game theorists to submit programs to play the iterated dilemma against each other, everyone against everyone. Fourteen entered, plus RANDOM. The winner was the simplest program in the field: Anatol Rapoport's TIT FOR TAT. Axelrod ran it again with 62 entries, and TIT FOR TAT won again.

On the Table there are no presets and no autopilot: you play every move yourself. These ten classic styles are how the Table reads you. Once your record fits one of them, you get its label, and every opponent sees it on your file. Run them against each other below to see which labels you'd want.

Noise

Noise flips 5% of moves at random: misclicks, timeouts, bad days.

Form 04 · PopulationIPD/TOUREXECWhy cooperation survives

Clusters beat individuals

Defectors win the fight. The bonus decides the map.

One on one, a defector always beats a cooperator. But cooperators who find each other outscore everyone around them, and their neighbours copy what works. How far that spreads comes down to one number, the temptation b = T ÷ R. On the Table, the co-op bonus sets it.

Fig. 2 · liveGeneration 0

A world of strangers, one neighbourhood at a time.

Cooperator Defector Just turned cooperator Just turned defector

Cooperators —

Co-op bonus +0.08 · b 1.85

FIG. 2 Spatial prisoner's dilemma, after Nowak & May (1992). Each square plays its eight neighbours, then copies whichever neighbour earned the most. Temptation b = 2 ÷ (1 + bonus); mutual defection pays 0, exactly as on the Table. Drag the bonus to zero and defectors take the map. Drag it up and they shrink to scattered holdouts.

Form 05 · DossierIPD/TOUREXECEvery move is public

Reputation is on-chain

You will be remembered.

Every holder has a file. Before each match you get your opponent's, and they get yours. Nothing in it is self-reported. It's computed from every move you've ever sealed.

NICENever be the first to defect.

RETALIATORYAnswer a defection right away.

FORGIVINGGo back to cooperating when they do.

CLEARBe easy to read. Crossing you shouldn't be worth it.

AXELROD, 1984 The traits shared by the programs that scored well. The dossier measures the first three directly; definitions in the docs.

Form 06 · TranscriptIPD/TOUREXECQ. and A.

Questions, answered under oath

Cross-examination.

Q.Can I withdraw my vault directly?

A.No. Vault money leaves through the Table or not at all. That's the whole design.

Q.What's the most I can lose in one match?

A.One chip per round, if every round you get robbed or you both steal. A chip is 1% of the smaller vault, matches average ten rounds, and there's a hard cap of fifty.

Q.How long is a match?

A.Nobody knows. After every round there's a 90% chance of another one, so matches average ten rounds, capped at fifty. If you knew which round was last, you'd steal on it. The docs have the math.

Q.Can I choose who I play?

A.No. Pairing is random among holders whose vault is within 2× of yours. If you could pick, you'd pick your own second wallet.

Q.What if I walk away mid-match?

A.You forfeit. Your move clock is thirty seconds, and there's no autopilot. If it runs out, your chip goes to your opponent and the match ends.

Q.Can my opponent see my move before choosing?

A.No. Both moves are sealed as hashes first and revealed together. Refuse to reveal and you forfeit the chip and the match.

Q.What happens to my vault if I sell?

A.Sell 40% of your $IPD and 40% of your unclaimed vault goes to the Commons. Claim first, then sell.

Q.Why "prisoner's" dilemma?

A.Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher devised the game at RAND in 1950. Albert Tucker added the story of two prisoners later that year, for a talk to psychologists at Stanford. The prison stuck.

Q.Isn't defecting just the smart move?

A.In one round, it never pays less. Over a match you can't see the end of, against someone holding your file, 1980 says otherwise. Run the tournament above and watch where ALWAYS DEFECT finishes.

Q.Is this live?

A.Not yet. No contract is deployed and everything on this site is simulated. Don't send funds to anyone who says otherwise.

** END OF JOB 0417 ** 6 FORMS PRINTED ** 0 ERRORS **

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