Makes me think of salvage operations, and then raises the question of how do people get paid? They're providing a valuable service. I think in shipping there are both conventions and an ability to quickly negotiate that allows contracting for a salvage ship to rush to the aid of a grounded or sinking container vessel.
Yes, there are. It's the Lloyds Open Form.[1] "No Cure - No Pay". This is the standard deal for salvage operations, and is well over a century old. It's very simple, since it's intended to be executed by someone on a sinking ship. It's sufficient for the captain of a ship in trouble to contact a "salvor" and say they accept the standard Lloyds Open Form. A message "ACCEPT SALVAGE SERVICES ON BASIS LLOYDS STANDARD FORM LOF 90 NO CURE NO PAY ACKNOWLEDGE" is enough.
Contractors’ basic obligation: The Contractors identified in Box 1 hereby agree to use their best endeavours to salve the property specified in Box 2 and to take the property to the places stated in Box 3 or to such other place as may hereafter be agreed. If no place is inserted in Box 3 and in the absence of any subsequent agreement as to the place where the property is to be taken the Contractors shall take the property to a place of safety.
The Contractors’ remuneration and/or special compensation shall be determined by arbitration in London in the manner prescribed by Lloyd’s Salvage Arbitration Clauses in force at the date of this agreement.
That's the deal.
You need some agreed way to resolve how much the job is worth for this to work. The Lloyds Open Form is an agreement to do the job and discuss later how much it's worth. That's generally settled by insurance adjusters. It's much like the aftermath of auto accidents.
How much does the salvor get? 15% - 35% of the recovered value, reports Lloyds.[2] Of course, salvors work under tough conditions. They have to have equipment and people ready 24/7 to go somewhere and do something. That's expensive. Some classic worldwide names exited in the past decade. Mammoet and Titan both dropped out.
All this is against accidental losses, not against an adversary. Where there's an opponent, it's a much tougher problem. Marine salvage is vs. the ocean. Whether this model can be made to fit programmed contract problems or ransomware is a big question. One worth pursuing.
The people helping here did it for compensation in the form of good will with key players and/or potential future customers of their respective crypto products.
If you're going to use two similar looking services for something using ETH, do you go with the one by some no-name or the one created and championed by community heros?
