Bounty program

A bounty program is a structured campaign, usually run alongside a token launch, in which a project trades small pieces of its own coin for specific marketing or development work rather than money. Instead of hiring staff, the team publishes a rulebook listing eligible tasks, how many points or tokens each is worth, and a deadline, then lets a distributed crowd of participants do the work.

Common task categories include:

• Signature campaigns: adding the project's banner and link to a forum signature (historically on Bitcointalk) and posting regularly to keep it visible.
• Social media bounties: following, retweeting, or sharing project announcements on X, Telegram, or Reddit.
• Translation bounties: converting the whitepaper, website, or announcement thread into another language.
• Content and bug bounties: writing articles or videos, or reporting security vulnerabilities in the project's code.

Bounty programs became widespread during the ICO boom, when projects had large token allocations but little cash, making tokens an attractive substitute for wages. Rewards are typically distributed only after the sale closes and the token has actually launched, which means participants carry both time risk and price risk: the token may launch far below expectations, or never trade at all.

Unlike an airdrop, which distributes tokens simply for holding a wallet or completing a one-click action, a bounty demands ongoing effort in exchange for a share of the reward pool. Because payouts are discretionary and largely unregulated, bounty hunters should check a project's track record and never share private keys or seed phrases to "claim" a reward.