RE: EOS Token Sale Smart Contract May Offer BUY LIMITS after all!
ah okay, so there are still no plans to have a hard limit then? because from watching those videos, it seems feasible to iterate the bid array in memory (not using gas) until only bids that remain below their limit threshold versus the "closing price" remain. Everyone else could then be refunded their money.
At that point, it would also seem much harder for large holders to manipulate the price in any material way that would gain them a real advantage (except possibly through "fake outs"), even with the ability to cancel orders, since everyone else can also cancel up to the last minute, and be protected by a limit price as well.
Regardless what you do, there will always be someone finding a way to game it one way or another. Sort of like back in the day, watching NASDAQ Level 2 before the open when the market makers would post all sorts of whacky unmarketable bids and offers trying to influence the market open.
Keeping it simple helps, if you make it a complex game then those who can play have an advantage over those who cannot.
You certainly have a point there, and one governments often don't even bother to consider.
Respectfully, though, I'm not sure having the ability to set a hard limit price for an order throughout the entire auction process quite fits into that category. Here's an interesting research report co-written by the ex-CEO and co-founder of OANDA FX: "High-Frequency Trading in FX Markets (PDF)".
On the topic of "extreme regulation", from the above research report, this is one of my favorite examples (besides some of the nonsensical short-selling bans regulators have also tried to implement):
On a side note, I also find it "humorous" that the "0.2% Tobin Tax Rate" described above is approximately what most crypto exchanges outrageously charge per side of their client's transactions. And somehow, it's still not enough to keep many of them solvent!
Haha, that last sentence is pretty crazy. And there should be a tobin tax on HFT across the board. It has nearly taken out all human trading and pro day traders are a dying breed.