Bitcoin Forum

Before participating in a crypto bounty project, here are some things you need to check in order to save time and problems later with the project.

1. A very basic and important thing to check first is that they have reliable staff willing to answer questions the same day or at least the next day.
2. Check if the project will solve something not covered by other projects already.
3. Verify if their staff is online showing their profiles with plenty of their info & they are active at Github.
4. Check the number of followers on Twitter and other social networks.
5. See if they have a practical way to count/reward your support where you can see right away your earn, or at least they count properly the same day or week.
6. Test them to see how good they are managing the community's feedbacks & communication.
7. Test them the first week, to see if they reward what they promised.
8. Ask all-important questions about legal stuff like KYC, countries allowed, etc.
9. Check that they have professional written ANN or bounty program, if they have a lot of mistakes, quit soon.
10. Evaluate how committed they are with the project.
11. Check that they have a professional and original written white paper.
12. Choose them if the project resonates with your passion.

I can add later more if they are important. Or you can suggest new ones.

Most bounties as i know don't even pay weekly. They pay bounty hunters their worthless tokens several months after the end of ICO/IEO which is kind of unfair but bounty hunters also cause such situations to exist. They are so many bounty hunters out their who are desperate to do anything to even just earn those worthless tokens

They are usually responsive when they are trying to raise fund.

And don't be deceived with fake followers especially in Facebook and Telegram.

Bounty rewards are usually distributed after end of the campaign.

And note that sometimes, they lie about KYC.
As it is said in all of bounties, they have the right to change the rules at any time.

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-Don't trust ICOs rating websites.
-Don't be deceived with big price of tokens in ICO. You cannot sell your tokens at those prices.
-Note that they may decrease number of tokens allocated to bounty.  

Agree to @jeromeTash.

Back those days that I'm still joining bounties. You can't easily check if the campaign is legit since the payment is after several months. So most of the effort spent on altcoin campaigns is getting into waste. It's hard to tell in the first week of the campaign 'cause if it's a scam, they will probably hide their malicious intent until the end of ICO/IEO where they earn investments.

So if you're bounty hunter, more effort and time are gonna be a waste but if you get a jackpot, it's huge money.

This applies to investors too, not only bounty hunters. I doubt many of them will read this guide though.
As pointed above, most projects will do their best to make you believe they are genuine and never doubt they might be scammers.

I agree with all those notes you have added to each point.
It is difficult to see results in the first week, maybe 1 month need to be spent just to test the team and figure out if all keeps going fair. But normally they pay at the end of ICO, it is better to think twice before wasting time with them.

It is better to be very picky with all of those bounties.

I know that this is not often done in the bounty section, more in the campaign that pays with Bitcoin which is use escrow to save rewards, this should also be done in the bounty campaign for at least 1-2 weeks so that what has been done is not in vain, once again this is a bit difficult but bounty hunters should consider about this too.

To be honest bounty hunters are too busy with their campaign. Because they have to make so many post on social media in order to get rewards. So they don't have enough time even visit a project website. I have Managed couple of (bitcoin) campaign. Honestly even participants doesn't click on their website link from anywhere (nor from signature or ANN thread). So bounty hunters are more busy than signature participants. In a result, bounty hunters are getting scam eventually. That's quite important to know about a project widely before join a bounty. But unfortunately not happening that cause there is competition who could join first and earn more. Nothing will change really if we don't wanna change ourselves.

And remember that, by joining a scam bounty program, it might not seem like it but you're just helping the next scam thrive. I've seen many going for random bounties just because they hope they're gonna hit the jackpot once and earn an undervalued coin for free.

If no attention was given to the obvious scams, there wouldn't be as many out here. But these bounties have now turned into automated scams and there are enough silly people out here to promote them and make their scam a success.

Oh, and remember that once you join a scam project, your name will be linked to it forever, so you better do some little research before you're going to trust a project.. welcome to the Internet. ;D

To me the development is one of the keypoints of a project. If I see there's development and interest coming from the project's team and it's not just "WE'RE ON BINANCE!!!!" kind of news but real and unique ideas being worked on, it'll become an interest to me.

If you join a project a few days after the bounty thread is published, you don't miss much. Unless there's a signature campaign you're interested in, but you wouldn't want to wear that on the forum is the project is a scam.

This is quite ambiguous. I'd rather say choose a project that you don't have ethical problems with promoting it. For example, if you don't like a porn or gambling service, then don't promote one. And avoid those who require you to posts on specific boards if you don't have enough knowledge there. You don't want to post on mining by talking bullshit and get embarrassed every day.

I recall my first Signature Campaign ending up being a fiasco. I don’t really care that much for not receiving the tokens (it was pretty much experimental for me), but rather more on a personal level for the fact of having giving some visibility to an ICO for over four months, that turned out to be a fiasco for both investors and campaign participants.

Now did I do my homework? Yes, to the (worst/) best of my abilities at the time, without going too deep into the research, but enough to believe that the concept solution was more or less feasible, backed by a team that had won some flashy awards, and that seemed to provide a market solution that was not artificially fabricated.

I more or less did check nearly all of the things listed in the OP, except those related to payment since, as most token-based campaigns do, they only rewarded the tokens after the conclusion of the campaign (which, of course, they never did in the end). I did see a couple of warning flags I should have read into deeper, but the positivity surrounding the project seemed to outweigh the yellow flags (not forum Trust flags, but conceptual flags) I’d seen in the struggle between positive and negative reviews. Turns out the negs were right, albeit being heavily outweighed …

After that experience, I went on for quite some time with no signature, preferring a blank stare from signature and avatar, to repeating a similar deception with another ICO. The current campaign is my second one on the forum, and for the most, represents an aspirational one in terms of prestige, seriousness with the payments, and very well managed. Besides that, you can wear your own avatar (which I created for the 10th anniversary art contest), being my account avatarless before (except for the period of time running for the ICO I was on about before). Unfortunately, there are not many akin, and more often than not one will need to settle for an ICO bearing an unknown/uncertain token.

Bottom line here is that yes, try to be picky with the campaign you represent (if you can), scrutinize viability and things such as those explained in the OP, but eventually you will be (hopefully) improving your chances of not getting ripped-of, but never getting to a point of certainty where you are guaranteed anything. It’s a game of chances, and it’s in one’s hands to better the chances, but not to be a clairvoyant of the exact outcome. 

I would also like to mention that you should consider whether or not that project has any reason to be on the blockchain in the first place. Ask yourself is blockchain really needed here?

I remember seeing posts from some ICO not so long ago who were trying to sell coffee using blockchain technology.
Why would someone need that? There is no reason for it.

A list like this is necessary. But.. you could take 10 extra minutes and write it better, taking care to
* structure it better, meaning not take the same/similar idea in multiple lines (see 1+3; 6+10;2+11)
* not make mistakes yourself "if they have a lot of mistakes, quick quit soon"  (also, actually not join at all, right?)
* remove unnecessary points (some get long term jobs which "resonates with your passion", so let's not be such purists)

So the list is good, but you can make it great with a bit more effort.


PS. I also agree with @JeromeTash that "weekly" payment is a rule one cannot follow because there are (almost?) no such bounties.

Advantages of engaging in quality contributions on the forum. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5137241.0)
[Guide] Factors to consider before joining paid signature campaigns. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5115291.0)
{Facts} Benefits of promoting (joining) a quality paid signature campaign. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5128076.0)
Facts} Disadvantage of promoting signature campaigns that encourages spamming. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5134473.0)

Above are some good topics on what OP tried to build his guide.

They make sure that you are getting convinced by their promises to deceive you. Its one of the reason why investors are in doubt investing on most projects because they are aware that one mistake can make an impact on their funds. They are afraid to take risk without having any assurance that the project is worth it and profitable. The problem is some investors don't analyze the outcomes before making decisions. Anyway, it just means that we can't just decide to participate on a bounty project without considering various of things. You may think that it requires time and effort to determine if a project is legit and will help you earn profit, but it is worth it knowing that your effort won't be wasted since you know that you will end up on a bounty project that fulfill their promises.

Thanks for your feedback, I did edit those points you suggested, now looks better IMO.

Most of scam projects are easy to notice. they use fake volume exchange, telegram channel full of bots like 50k+ members, they pay for a group of peoples to run conversation to pump their announcement thread in order to attract more peoples... but sometimes they come disguised in a fashion way, everything about the project is there, innovative idea, clear roadmap and serious team showing all of their details and information so you choose to participate but surprise they disappear after their crowdfunding, I saw this happen many times. But honestly, it sad to see peoples falling for obvious scams which represent 90% or even more of the altcoin section.

Always be careful and if you see something not write and could be a potential scam just quit and don't waste your time and effort.

You sum everything every bounty hunters need to know it deserves merit or even get pinned right now the crowdfunding is all messed up I have seen projects that are qualified to received funding but they are ignored because, investors are not having second thought because of past experiences with so called good project.

For me this guide should be excluded or remove mate. As many have already mentioned, this one cant apply on the campaign in the altcoin section.

Ive been a bounty hunter mostly in altcoins and I know how hard it is to wait for rewards in these campaign. Yeah like @Coolcryptovator mentioned, most hunters are quite busy creating social post and eventually get scam but not all. Of course I am sophisticated on joining campaign and only pick which I think legit and will pay.

Also agree with this. If the concept of an ICO is very simple and you think blockchain not even necessary, avoid this type of campaign cause surely this is only will become a pump and dump tokens or worst will not have any value at all since inevstors would just avoid and ingored this type of project.

@OP nice guide just improve the list based on others feedback. Thanks.

Considering the current bounty status, I will go with who is the bounty manager. It's very necessary to check if they have hired a professional bounty manager or with a new or less popular one.
For example, if we look back at Yahoo bounty campaign, mb8coin was the last one he managed and that one was huge successful for bounty hunters. Rewards were distributed correctly. People got some good amount from the bounty.
On the other hand, it's also important to escrow the bounty reward, there are some example of not distributing the reward. But if the reward was escrowed, that's not going to happen.

Yes, it does  ;)



You're right, some bounty managers (especially Yahoo62278) are quite a guarantee the bounty campaign will go well. Escrows are also important.
But most just don't do that. And campaigns are just not so many one can pick easily. And we should also not ask for centralization in the bounty management area.

For example I got to trust my current campaign although it doesn't have neither known manager, not escrowed funds, but it has trust (and in-forum) reviews from members I trust, reviews telling that they are honest and paying.
So there are quite more things to take into account.

I guess knowing the bounty manager has an added point too. But of course, if we have a good relationship with our manager even though he iant famous like Yahoo then there will no problem. Escrow is a must but for the bounty like we have (BestChange and Gold) I think they already proven their authencity right? People's trust is important so I believe those project without escrow especially those altcoin payment should do aomething to guarantee trust of their participants at least.

Let's not forget to mention that bounties are not really rewarding as before as funding models like ICO, STO and even IEO have lost their magic and fuel and at such, projects don't get the funding to make their startup up and running and at such can't pay bounty participants. There have been several cases where participants didn't get rewarded for their services/work/efforts. Aside from that, Its is a necessity to do due diligence on the team. Don't just believe because their CEO is smiling in the selfie pic on his DP.

That's a very good point!

Once you know how a bounty manager works, then it is easier to know what you can spect, but sometimes even the most experienced managers can be fooled by scammers.

What about the bounty that is calculated in stakes and is held during ico or rounds of ieo?
How can bounty manager escrow the bounty reward if no one knows if the project will raise softcap, nor anyone knows how much tokens must be distributed?

If I find a bounty that already has a quality product, despite under development, I will go for it. Another plus is that, if the bounty funds are escrowed with evidence shown, I will quickly run towards it. The reason being that, there have been some very good projects that had a smooth bounty and yet paying bounty hunters became very difficult for them.
They would have achieved the success needed, but will not want bounty hunters to benefit from it.
There are very good examples of such, even if I start mentioning names, it might be endless.

Some of them divided funds to be paid into different periods, after paying the first, they stopped.

Mostly the ones that are replying to us are the ones that are only bounty hunters that they hire so they can accommodate and entertain the answers of the bounty hunters in their telegram group. and the admins and the members rarely open telegram so always check if they are members or only telegram manager.


That's also right because there so many bounties that has the same ideas and only few of them will get a decent price and a successful ieo
there are many real estate, adult sites, car loan, gaming industry and virtual reality so be careful and don't pick any of that.