Bounty0x- A scalable bounty hunting platform with "stake & burning" mechanism of quality control.

With the advent of blockchain technology, the crypto market has been expanding at a faster rate particularly since 2017(after the epic rise of Bitcoin). Hundreds of new startups and projects are joining this ecosystem every month. So building a community base for every startup is very common and inherent to any project and startups. The term airdrop & bounties is a sequence to that objective. Even though "bounty" as a tool was used in the past(even before blockchain & crypto), its recognition and prevalence have become more general in the era of the blockchain technology & crypto market.

The market size of bounties has been growing and to the extent that now it has a significant consumer base & a considerable size of startups and projects. That implies that managing bounty is a genuine use-case. But this sector by large is still a grey area and not yet organized properly.

There exist a big gap between the skill of the hunters and a legitimate bounty offer, the reason being- the bounty market is not yet organized properly. The hunters by large are dependent on forums to find a legitimate bounty offer, which is inefficient for both the project owners and bounty hunters. It is time-consuming as well as inefficient for the startup teams to keep on posting and advertising bounties; scalability is another issue if the number of participants is more. The bounties in itself have many types of tasks, addressing to each type & scrutinizing each is again time-consuming. Sending the correct amount to the correct address is yet another challenge if the volume is high.

Therefore a composite solution is needed which can be an integrated solution for both startups and bounty hunters, which must also be in the ethos of the decentralized spirit of blockchain technology. The startups can leverage on the platform features without wasting time and organize their bounty campaigns smoothly and the hunters can respond to a host of bounty campaigns and earn tokens.

Bounty0x is a one-stop decentralized solution of "Bounty management" where the bounty hosts and bounty hunters can collaborate efficiently and achieve their objective.

Bounty0x aims to offer a comprehensive & decentralized bounty management platform that can scale & verify thousands of submissions through automated processes with a specified time limit. Any startups, projects, companies can host a bounty campaign through the Bounty0x platform and can target & locate to bounty contributors. The hosts can further customize a bounty campaign to reach out good contributors by leveraging the reputation score.

Bounty0x enables third party reviewers called sheriffs so that the review process can scale at a better rate and the platform will remain sustainable & decentralized. All the actors here in this platform get their reward based on their contribution. A bounty hunter receives a payout based on the type of bounty task and grading of the submission. A sheriff earns BNTY tokens for correct verification of submission. A bounty host achieves its objective to recruit community members for the project/startup.

The payment distribution in Bounty0x is trustless through the smart contract.

Bounty0x is also fair in the review process, as it offers a second chance to the bounty hunter to raise a dispute, should he feel that his contribution is not properly graded. In such a case, the dispute must be raised within 5 days, then a second review to the submission is done & accordingly a fair evaluation is ensured to the submission.

(1) Time intensive Verification & Distribution

For the startups and projects who initiate campaigns and invite submission for the events, checking & verifying each submission is very time consuming which will result in longer wait time for the hunters which at times gives a wrong impression about the project. Other than that, it may also result in an incorrect distribution of payout at the end of the event, especially if the volume is high, which further creates chaos.

The solution by Bounty0x is to make the bounty management platform decentralized so that the verification process can be made faster either through API or through bounty sheriff(third party reviewer) as applicable in a particular type of bounty, so that correct verification as well proper distribution of the fund can be ensured within the defined time limit of the event.

(2) No Recognition or No Reputation Score for the full-time Bounty Hunters

In the growing crypto ecosystem, the bounty hunters are a useful resource for startups. There are many bounty hunters who work full time and spend countless hours in completing various tasks. Over a period of time, they become seasoned bounty hunters. But unfortunately, there is no system in place to gauge their past record and assign a reputation score to them, which can otherwise be helpful for both bounty hosts and bounty hunters.

The solution by Bounty0x is to assign a reputation score for all the tasks they(bounty hunters) have completed to date. In the Bounty0x platform, all the tokens earned by a hunter are converted into ETH equivalent and a reputation score is assigned. The bounty hunters can command a better price for their work by leveraging on their reputation score. The startups can easily reach & locate their bounties to a better contributor based on the reputation score.

(3) Lack of a Comprehensive Decentralized Bounty Management Platform

The existing bounty management platform does not allow a user to review and check the submission by a bounty hunter. The freelancing sites by large does not support crypto assets. They don't have even a structure in place to trace the hunter's work adequately & the payment disbursal also takes a lot of time. The various types of bounty tasks are not categorized & classified. So the existing system including the various freelancing sites is neither decentralized nor scalable.

The solution by Bounty0x is to allow any user to become a reviewer(by staking BNTY token), the tasks are perfectly categorized so that the bounty hunters can align their skills precisely with respect to a task. The payment distribution is automatic because the bounty hosts allocate a percentage of their tokens before the start of the event. The amount that is offered to a completed task is further based on the quality tier that a submission fits to the grading scale such as "lower/good/great/extraordinary", etc. It uses verification through APIs for simple tasks and verification through sheriff for qualitative tasks. So by automating the verification process and enabling any user to become sheriff(reviewer) to review a submission, makes the platform decentralized and scalable. Bounty0x can easily handle even thousands of submission and this is a hassle-free solution for both bounty hosts & bounty hunters.

Bounty Hosts

Any project owner, companies, enterprises can host a bounty campaign, define the rules and set a reward for the defined task. The individual users take up the task and submit it. It is then verified by the host and then the payout is disbursed.

A free host is restricted to reward only in ETH or in stable coins-USDT, TUSD, PAX, GUSD, USC, USDQ or DAI, etc. A premium host(upgraded to professional or enterprise plan) can set the reward in other cryptos also such as Ethereum(ERC-20, ERC-777, ERC-223), Stellar, EOS (eosio.token standard), Waves, Tron, NEO (NEP-5). But to be eligible to reward in other cryptos, the host has to make sure that during the entire campaign it must remain in the upgraded plan.

The premium plans are generally of 30 days monthly subscription period. So at the end of the subscription period, it is automatically downgraded to a free plan.

So for a premium Bounty Host, if the Bounty campaign is more than 30 days, it has to upgrade in every 30 days to get the benefits of the premium plan & will be able to host it with custom tokens.

All the bounties of a premium host are displayed in the featured listing position. Featured listing generally receives more participation.

The type of verification of a particular task varies depending on the type of task. A task can be qualitative or quantitative in nature. So the verification can be through API(in case of a quantitative task) or the task may require to pass through verification by a Bounty Sheriff(in case of a qualitative task).

For example(Quantitative task), if the task requires a retweet or sharing a post in a social media, then it does not require any manual verification, an API is enough to check whether the user has retweeted it or not. Similarly, (Qualitative task) if the task is about writing a quality blog or vlog, etc, then it requires manual verification and it must pass through a bounty sheriff(reviewer). After verification, the accuracy level of the task is determined and based on that the grading is done & the payout is disbursed.

Bounty Hunters

Bounty hunters are the users who take up the tasks that are available on the platform. They are free to participate in any of the tasks. The unique & revolutionary feature of Bounty0x is that there is a built-in reputation system that is attached to the profile of every user.

The built-in reputation system in Bounty0x makes the bounty market more organized and the bounty hunters can leverage this reputation system to earn more. Those who work for bounties with a regular daily schedule will earn regularly. All the tokens earned by them are converted by Bounty0x in ETH equivalent and a rank is assigned to the user. So over a period of time, the bounty hunters can build a reputation and that will also be helpful for the bounty hosts to assign the task to the reputed bounty hunters.

The default platform fee in Bounty0x is 15% that is deducted from the bounty rewards the hunters receive. However, the hunter can reduce this fee by staking BNTY tokens. There are three different slabs of discount. The staking cycle is 30 days, so every 30 days the user has the choice whether to continue with the stake or withdraw it. As long as BNTY is staked, the user will get the discount benefits.

Bounty Sheriffs

Bounty sheriffs are the third party reviewer of a task. Once again this feature of Bounty0x proves that the mechanism in the management of bounties is decentralized. Anyone can become a bounty sheriff. But the user has to buy & stake BNTY token(which is the native token of Bounty0x), must also perform KYC to become a bounty sheriff. The minimum recommended BNTY tokens for a Bounty Sheriff is 1000 BNTY.

The role of a bounty sheriff is to check the tasks submitted by the hunters qualitatively and to ascertain whether the submission has complied with the defined rules of the task or not. The correct verification by the bounty sheriff will earn him BNTY tokens; incorrect verification will result in part of the staked BNTY be burned.

Types of bounties

Bounty0x has classified the different types of tasks into three categories:

Simple Bounties- For example- a retweet, a share in social media, etc.- Verified automatically with APIs.
Sheriff Bounties- For example- writing a quality blog or vlog- Verified manually by a Bounty Sheriff.
Super Bounties- For example- A highly technical & subjective task- Verified by the project owner/admin

BNTY Token

It is the native token of Bounty0x platform. The utility of BNTY is designed in such a way to ensure all the actors of this platform remain honest. Staking of BNTY gives additional benefits & discounts to the users.

The different utilities of BNTY token are:

BNTY is required to be staked by the bounty hunter to take part in Superbounties.
A user can become a bounty sheriff by staking BNTY.
For qualitative bounties & for premium hosts, the hosts require to purchase BNTY.
Bounty hunters can reduce the platform fees(15%) if they stake BNTY tokens & can also unlock more monthly disputes.

^{(My Original Work)}

Go to https://beta.bounty0x.io/. Click on "Sign Up".
One can sign up as Hunter, Host, Sheriff. Choose accordingly what you are up to.
Fill up all the details, accept the terms and conditions and then click on "Sign Up".
Verify your email address by visiting the inbox of your registered email id.
Your Bounty0x account is activated now.

I have chosen to sign up as a Bounty Hunter, so as a hunter you can explore this platform in the following ways:-

Log in now to the Bounty0x.
Update your profile. Add your ETH wallet address.
Now click on "Explore" to browse different categories of bounties that are available in your dashboard. You can find all types of bounties that are available such as Articles, Youtube, Telegram, Twitter, Facebook, Contest, Translations, Bugs, Newsletter, etc. You can choose any of them which suits your skill level.
If you click on a particular type, it will display further details of the task. For example, if I choose the task "Article", then it will take me to the page what are the tasks available, how many days left, what is the maximum reward for the task and its equivalent amount in USD.
Upon clicking on a particular task it will further detail you about the guidelines and rules of the task. In this case, once you have written the article, you can submit it by clicking on "Apply", then a pop-up will appear, paste the link of the post and then click on "Submit".

If you want to explore the Bounty0x platform as a Bounty Sheriff, you can sign up by clicking on the “Sheriff” tab. Fill up all the details such as Name, Email ID, etc. Choose a username & set the password, agree to the ToS and then click on “Sign Up”. Verify your email address, pass the KYC and then deposit BNTY (at least 1000 BNTY) through Metamask and start reviewing submissions. The submissions are randomly assigned to the sheriffs.

The BNTY will remain staked if you take up a review assignment and will be released after the appeal window period which is 7 days. A hunter may appeal during these 7 days if he feels that his contribution is poorly graded. That is why the BNTY stake is locked for 7 days. Upon successful review of the submission, the sheriff will earn incentives. For incorrect review/ verification, there is a penalty that will result in burning a part of the BNTY tokens. This mechanism of stake & burning is designed in order to ensure better quality control in Bounty0x.

In a similar way, the projects/startups can also sign up as Bounty Hosts. They can click on the “Host” tab and fill all the relevant details, agree to the ToS and sign up as Bounty hosts.

Merits

Most of the bounties are generally ERC20 based. Bounty0x supports ERC-20, ERC-777, ERC-223. Apart from that it also supports EOS, Tron, Stellar, NEO, etc. So all types of projects can be best fitted to the Bounty0x platform for hosting a Bounty campaign.
The best and unique feature of Bounty0x is that any user can become a Sheriff and the quality control mechanism is staking BNTY so that the sheriff will perform its role in a responsible manner and can further earn, else will face financial implication. So this makes the platform decentralized & sustainable.
Proper classification of the tasks helps the hunters to precisely apply their skills to a particular task. It also makes the system faster to assign the verification role. So it saves a lot of time.
It is efficient, automated, decentralized & a comprehensive bounty management platform in crypto domain.
It can handle thousands of submissions effectively within the defined time limit.
The reputation score of the Bounty hunters can help the hunter to gain better economic incentives on the premise of their past contribution. The projects can also locate to proven bounty contributors.
It supports all types of bounties, so it can cover a large category of projects and startups. Bounty0x also supports projects that don't use crypto. Such projects can choose a stable coin and/or can choose to pay BNTY also.

Demerits

Data analyses struggle to predict "How much a bounty hunter can earn(in USD) per month on an average". The high volatility, delayed project, bear market, etc are the factors.
The platform fee is a little higher for those hunters who don't have staked BNTY.
Although a reputation score system exists in Bounty0x, it is a simple one. A detailed & precise reputation score is needed particularly for those hunters who contribute quality articles, vlogs, bug hunting or any subjective tasks.

After analyzing the different features of Bounty0x & evaluating it on the basis of various parameters as presented above, I would like to give an overall rating of 4.5 star out of 5 stars.

The marketing from the grassroots level can be achieved through bounty campaigns, but considering the growing bounty market size and the projects in the crypto domain, an organized bounty management platform was really an essential use-case which Bounty0x now is catering to. Bounty0x stands out against other freelancing sites with two key features- (1)anyone can become a sheriff to review the submission & (2)reputation score for bounty hunters. I think going forward both of these features will make the bounty management more scalable & decentralized.

The bounty hosts & bounty hunters will be able to locate each other quickly by leveraging on the reputation score system of Bounty0x. That will bring efficiency. The seasoned bounty hunters can always have a sense of motivation with a reputation score. This platform can also make the full-time bounty hunting a legitimate online job in the mainstream domain.

More Information & Resources

I have already written an article on Bounty0x last week. But in this article, I have added additional informations and infographics for a better understanding on Bounty0x.

The screenshots are taken during my interaction with Bounty0x site. The graphical analysis, flowcharts & infographics are my own original works.

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