Marketplace for Corporate Computer Services with Penalties

Existing marketplaces for computer programming and coding services (e.g., "RentACoder.com") are designed for small transactions - with most bids in the $10-$100 range. The services are matching buyers of code with code-writers usually located off-shore in low-cost geographies. The typical transaction involves the buyer to post a project and a variety of programmers/coders to bid on that project. The buyer evaluates the bidders, accepts a bid and submits the bid price to the marketplace. Once the project has been successfully completed the funds are released to the coder. The quality of the bidders is determined/measured by an 'eBay-style' feedback rating.

Why not ask bidders to post a penalty deposit with the marketplace upon acceptance of the bid by the buyer? This deposit would be used to compensate the buyer if the bidder cannot or will not complete the project as agreed upon. This would make a feedback rating system redundant as more confident coders would be willing to agree to and post higher penalties. The idea is that corporate buyers need to adhere to tight deadlines, and cannot procure services from unknown coders unless there is some kind of guarantee that the work will be performed in time according to specs. Upon completion and signoff, both bid price + penalty deposit are paid to the coder. Optionally, coders and buyers may take out third-party insurance to cover any losses.

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