The recent discussion of "shares" for discoveries by a ship brought to mind a likely solution. There was a formula used for distributing shares of prize money in the late 18th and early 19th century. I only have partial details, but it *does* seem to be the sort of thing that would get revived (these things tend to quickly optimize between fairness and simplicity, so why re-invent the wheel?)
Beside, a formula that was used by both the British Navy and some notable privateers seems to be appropriate somehow. :-)
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