Bounties

Overview

Bounties are on-chain groups in Polkadot that manage a pot of funding dedicated to a specific purpose. Bounties are approved by governance by the larger DAO. The curators of the bounty are also approved by OpenGov, and perform the function of evaluating bounty proposals and awarding funds by issuing child bounties.

Tip

View all active on-chain bounties in Subsquare.

For a general overview of bounties, see the Dot Bounties Hub by Lily Mendz.

Transparency is a fundamental pillar for building trust and strengthening engagement within OpenGov. During my participation in the ecosystem, I have identified a lack of centralized access to key information about approved bounties and child bounties. This information is crucial for those who wish to actively get involved and contribute meaningfully.

I have gathered and organized this data, making it available to the community for better use and distribution. My goal is to facilitate access to this information, helping more people make informed decisions and participate effectively in OpenGov.

- Lily, The Bounties Book

Note

Lily has also created a Dune dashboard to track bounty spending.

Note

Parity Data also has a report on bounty spending to track bounty spending.

Tip

Bounties need qualified curators with domain expertise! Alice and Bob has issued a call to find more bounty curators.

Selected Bounties

There are over 20 bounties active in Polkadot today. Some of the more prominent bounties are listed here.

Event Bounty

The Polkadot Events Bounty is its own entity and treasury pot elected by the token holders and community via OpenGov. This bounty has been established for the purpose of:

• Positioning Polkadot, valuable ecosystem teams, individuals and agents at the most impactful events around the globe
• Fostering community growth across multiple regions around the globe
• Nurturing events teams to maintain their various regions
• Creating a fast, transparent and viable system for events oversight and execution
• Funding development to aid events management and metrics

The Event Bounty publishes proposal templates for different types of events, as well as guidelines for what kinds of costs are accepted. See the website for more information.

• General information and links
• To apply, submit your event here

This Monday dashboard tracks all Event Bounty proposals and approvals.

Meetup Bounty

You can apply to receive funds to cover your Polkadot meetup up to 1000 USD in DOT. Anyone active in the Polkadot community can apply AFTER the meetup happens. Please fill up the form only in case your event has already happened. If you are curious about whether your proposal has a chance to pass in the future, feel free to ask and connect with us in our Telegram Meetups group.

Vist the Dot Meetups webpage for information on how to apply.

Vist the Dot Meetups Telegram Group to ask questions about the process.

Marketing Bounty 2.0

As of Nov 15, 2024, the new Marketing Bounty is open for business!

The Bounty’s mission is to accelerate the growth of the Polkadot ecosystem by funding marketing initiatives. We will foster a vibrant community of developers, users, and contributors by supporting proposals that highlight the value of Polkadot’s cutting-edge technology. By driving awareness and engagement, we will position Polkadot as the go-to platform for Web3 innovation.

Visit the Notion page to find out more and apply.

Create a bounty

If you see a need that could be met with a focused bounty, you have the ability to propose a new one to OpenGov. Here are the basic steps:

1. Get the bounty approved by OpenGov (the purpose and amount of funds)
2. Get bounty curators approved by OpenGov
3. Start execution of the bounty - start to accept evaluation of funds
4. Renew the bounty if it expires or if you need to top-up funds

Note

An example of a new bounty being proposed is the Easy A x Polkadot University Microgrants Bounty, to award $10K grants to developers to kickstart development.

Future Bounty Improvements

Stablecoin bounties

Currently, bounties are only issued on DOT on the relay chain. This makes them susceptible to price fluctuations, which may be non-ideal. There is an effort underway to update bounties to support stablecoins on Asset Hub.

Track this issue on GitHub to see the progress for this update. As of Oct. 2024, it does not have an implementer yet.

Standardized bounty operation

Additionally, there will be a Wish for Change (WFC) to standardize bounty operations, such as reporting and payments, targeted for the end of Oct. 2024. Check this forum post for more information.