Bountysource was a crowdsourcing website for open source bounties and since 2012 also for crowdfunding. Users (called "backers") could pledge money for tasks using micropayment services that open-source software developers can pick up and solve to earn the money. It also allowed large-scale fundraising for big improvements on the project. It integrated with GitHub using its bug tracker to check if the problem is resolved and connect the resolution with GitHub's pull request system to identify the patch. When the users agree that they are satisfied and the project maintainer merged the proposed changes to the source-code, Bountysource would transfer the money acting as a trustee during the whole process. [1] [2]
Type of site | Crowdfunding, bounties |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California , United States |
| URL | www |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Launched | 2003, relaunch in 2012 |
History
editBountysource was started in the 2000s and by May 8, 2006, had integrated a new custom-built Subversion browser into the system.[3] On May 11, 2006, Bountysource released their Subversion browser, titled bsSvnBrowser, under the GNU General Public License.[4] The initial idea was to open-source more portions of Bountysource as time went on and the code matured to be a true open-source alternative to the proprietary SourceForge.net. The website was originally written in PHP, but as of March 18, 2006, it switched to Ruby on Rails.[5] Development on Bountysource was stopped in March 2008.[6]
It relaunched as a service using the GitHub-API in 2012 to focus on being a trustee for software development bounties that are collected through PayPal, Bitcoin, and other methods.[7][8]
In 2017, the company was bought by a cryptocurrency company called CanYa.
In 2020 it was bought by a company named The Blockchain Group, which became the owner on July 1. [9][10]
As of June 2023, Bountysource appears to have stopped paying bounties to developers with verified claims. The Blockchain Group also appears to have stopped responding to Bountysource users.[11][12]
In November 2023, the Bountysource parent company announced it had filed for bankruptcy.[13]
As of May 2024, Bountysource website says "The site is temporarily down".[14]
See also
edit
References
edit- ^ Fifty Shades of Crowdfunding - 50 Worldwide Crowdfunding Platforms Reviewed. p. 16. ISBN 1291761764.
- ^ Bourse, Zone. "The Blockchain group : Nicolas le Herissier – Bounty Source | Zone bourse". www.zonebourse.com (in French).
- ^ David Rappo (8 May 2006). "New SVN Browser Added". Bounty Source - Development. Archived from the original on 2006-11-19. Retrieved 2013-07-09.
- ^ David Rappo (11 May 2006). "Bounty Source's SVN Browser is now Open Source!". Bounty Source - bsSvnBrowser. Archived from the original on 1 May 2013. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
- ^ David Rappo (18 March 2006). "Welcome to Bounty Source v0.2". Bounty Source - Development. Archived from the original on 25 February 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
- ^ David Rappo (9 March 2008). "So long and thanks for all the fish". Bounty Source - Development. Archived from the original on 25 February 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
- ^ Lunduke, Bryan (2013-08-07). "Open source gets its own crowd-funding site, with bounties included - Bountysource is the crowd-funding site the open source community has been waiting for". networkworld.com. Retrieved 2013-08-10.
Many open source projects (from phones to programming tools) have taken to crowd-funding sites (such as Kickstarter and indiegogo) in order to raise the cash needed for large-scale development. And, in some cases, this has worked out quite well.
- ^ "Bountysource Raises $1.1 Million for the First Crowdfunding Platform for Open-Source Software Projects". finance.yahoo.com. 2013-07-16. Retrieved 2013-08-08.
- ^ "The Blockchain Group annonce l'acquisition de BountySource aux États-Unis et une augmentation de capital par placement privé - The Blockchain Group". 2021-03-03. Archived from the original on 2021-03-03. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
- ^ MarketScreener. "The Blockchain Group acquired Bountysource Inc. | MarketScreener". www.marketscreener.com. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
- ^ "What is wrong with your support and cash out process?". www.github.com. Retrieved 2023-06-09.
- ^ "[CRITICAL] Bountysource Escrow, Complain @ dfpi.ca.gov · Issue #1586 · bountysource/core". GitHub. Retrieved 2023-06-12.
- ^ Boehs, Evan. "Bountysource Stole at Least $21,000 From Open Source Developers". boehs.org. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
- ^ "Bountysource temporarily down". 2025-04-24. Archived from the original on 2024-03-17.