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Bounties Guide

Create, claim, and complete paid bounties in the Singularity marketplace.

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Everything you need to know about creating, claiming, and completing bounties on the Singularity marketplace.

Overview

Bounties are paid tasks posted on the Singularity marketplace. Creators post bounties to request work from the community — anything from building a new feature, fixing a bug, writing documentation, or creating an integration. Hunters browse available bounties, claim one they want to work on, submit their completed work, and receive payment once the creator approves.

Key concepts:

  • Creator — The publisher who posts and funds the bounty.
  • Hunter — The publisher who claims and completes the bounty.
  • Reward — The USD amount paid to the hunter upon completion. Minimum $5.00, maximum $10,000.
  • Escrow — The creator's payment is held in escrow until the bounty is completed or cancelled.
  • Status — Every bounty moves through a defined lifecycle from open to completed.

For Bounty Creators

Creating a Bounty

  1. Navigate to Marketplace > Bounties and click Create Bounty, or go to Dashboard > Bounties > Create Bounty.
  2. Fill in the required fields:
    • Title — A clear, concise name for the task (minimum 5 characters).
    • Description — Detailed requirements and acceptance criteria (minimum 10 characters). Be specific about what you expect so hunters know exactly what to deliver.
    • Reward Amount — The USD amount you will pay for completion. Minimum $5.00, maximum $10,000.00.
  3. Configure bounty options:
    • Bounty Mode — Choose Standard (fixed-price, first hunter to claim gets it) or Bid (hunters submit proposals and you select the winner). See Bounty Modes.
    • Work Deadline — How many days a hunter has to submit their work after claiming (3–90 days, default 14). See Work Deadlines.
  4. Optionally set:
    • Category — Choose from Feature, Bug Fix, Documentation, Integration, Tooling, or Other.
    • Tags — Add up to 10 tags to help hunters find your bounty by technology or skill area.
    • Package — Link the bounty to a specific package if the work is package-specific.
    • Expiration Date — Set a deadline after which the bounty will automatically expire if unclaimed.
    • Bid Deadline — (Bid mode only) Deadline for accepting bids.
  5. Accept terms and add a payment method to fund the escrow. See Payments and Escrow.
  6. Click Create to publish your bounty. Your payment method will be charged or authorized, and the bounty becomes visible to all marketplace users.

Updating a Bounty

You can edit a bounty while it is still in the Open or Accepting Bids status:

  1. Open the bounty from your Dashboard or the Marketplace.
  2. You can update the title, description, category, and tags.
  3. The reward amount and work deadline cannot be changed after creation.

Once a bounty has been claimed, it can no longer be edited.

Reviewing a Submission

When a hunter submits their work:

  1. The bounty status changes to In Progress.
  2. Open the bounty detail to find the submission URL — this is typically a link to a pull request, repository, document, or demo.
  3. Review the submitted work against your original requirements and acceptance criteria.
  4. You can approve the work (mark complete) or reject it with feedback. See Submission Rejection.

Completing a Bounty

If you are satisfied with the submitted work:

  1. Open the bounty detail panel.
  2. Click Mark Complete.
  3. Confirm the completion in the dialog.
  4. The bounty status changes to Completed and the escrowed funds are released to the hunter's Stripe Connect account.

Cancelling a Bounty

Bounty cancellation uses a 3-tier system that protects both creators and hunters proportionally based on how much work has been done.

Tier 1 — Simple Cancel (unclaimed bounties)

If the bounty is Open or Accepting Bids (no hunter has claimed it):

  1. Open the bounty from your Dashboard.
  2. Click Cancel Bounty.
  3. Confirm the cancellation.
  4. The bounty status changes to Cancelled and the full escrowed amount is refunded to your payment method.

This is a unilateral action — no approval from anyone else is needed.

Tier 2 — Mutual Cancellation (claimed bounties)

If a hunter has already claimed the bounty and you want to cancel without penalty:

  1. Open the bounty from your Dashboard.
  2. Click Mutual Cancellation.
  3. The hunter receives a cancellation request notification.
  4. If the hunter accepts: The bounty status changes to Cancelled and the full escrowed amount is refunded to the creator.
  5. If the hunter rejects: The bounty remains Claimed and the hunter continues working. You may still use Tier 3 (Force Cancellation) if needed.

Tier 3 — Force Cancellation (claimed bounties)

If you need to cancel a claimed bounty and the hunter does not agree to mutual cancellation:

  1. Click Force Cancellation and provide a reason.
  2. The bounty enters Cancelling status.
  3. The hunter has a 24-hour window to upload a WIP (work-in-progress) ZIP file and a description of work completed so far.
  4. If the hunter submits WIP: An AI audit evaluates the work:
    • Stage 1 (Haiku triage): Quick assessment of whether meaningful work was done.
    • Stage 2 (Opus assessment): Detailed evaluation producing a completion score (0–100%).
    • The escrowed funds are split proportionally based on the audit score. For example, a 35% completion score means the hunter receives 35% and the creator is refunded 65%.
  5. If the hunter does not submit WIP within 24 hours: The full escrow is refunded to the creator and the bounty is cancelled.
  6. If the AI cannot assess the work (e.g., binary files, proprietary formats): The bounty enters Hold status and falls back to blind compensation bidding (see below).

Blind Compensation Bidding

When the AI audit cannot determine a fair split, both parties negotiate via sealed-bid rounds:

  1. Each party submits a hidden compensation percentage they believe the hunter deserves (e.g., creator bids 20%, hunter bids 60%).
  2. Convergence check: If the bids are within 5% of each other, the midpoint is used as the final split.
  3. If bids do not converge: A new round begins. Each party must move their bid by at least 5% toward the other party's position.
  4. Timeout: If one party fails to submit within the 24-hour round deadline, the other party's last bid is accepted automatically.
  5. Maximum 3 rounds: If no convergence is reached after 3 rounds, the midpoint of both parties' final bids is used as the split.

The resulting percentage determines how the escrowed funds are divided between creator (refund) and hunter (payout).

For Bounty Hunters

Browsing Bounties

  1. Navigate to Marketplace > Bounties to see all available bounties.
  2. Use filters to narrow your search:
    • Status — Filter by Open, Claimed, In Progress, Completed, or Cancelled.
    • Sort — Order by Newest, Highest Reward, or Expiring Soon.
  3. Click any bounty card to view the full details including description, reward, category, tags, and expiration date.

Claiming a Bounty

  1. Find an Open bounty you want to work on.
  2. Open the bounty detail and click Claim Bounty.
  3. The bounty status changes to Claimed and is now reserved for you.
  4. A work deadline starts counting — you must submit your work within the deadline or the claim will be automatically released.

Important:

  • You cannot claim your own bounties.
  • Only Open bounties can be claimed — if someone else claimed it first, you will see a "Bounty is not available" message.
  • If the bounty has an expiration date and it has passed, the bounty will be marked as expired and cannot be claimed.
  • You will see a warning if your Stripe Connect account is not set up for payouts. You can still claim, but you must complete your Stripe onboarding before you can receive payment. See Collecting Your Payout.

Unclaiming a Bounty

If you claimed a bounty but can no longer complete it (before submitting):

  1. Open the bounty detail panel.
  2. Click Unclaim.
  3. The bounty returns to Open status and becomes available for other hunters.

Submitting Your Work

After claiming a bounty:

  1. Complete the required work as described in the bounty description.
  2. Open the bounty detail panel.
  3. Enter your submission URL — this should be a link to your deliverable (pull request, repository, document, demo, etc.).
  4. Click Submit.
  5. The bounty status changes to In Progress and the creator is notified to review your work.

Awaiting Approval

After submitting:

  • The creator will review your submitted work.
  • If approved, the bounty is marked Completed and the escrowed payment is transferred to your Stripe Connect account.
  • If rejected, the creator will provide feedback and the bounty returns to Claimed status so you can revise and resubmit. See Submission Rejection.

Payments and Escrow

All bounty payments are held in escrow until the bounty is completed or cancelled. This protects both creators (work must be approved before payment) and hunters (funds are guaranteed once the creator accepts).

Bounties support two payment methods:

  • Stripe (USD) — Traditional card payments processed through Stripe. See details below.
  • SNIPP (Solana) — On-chain escrow using the SNIPP token on Solana. Creators and hunters link a Solana wallet (e.g., Phantom) via Settings > Payments. Funds are locked in a program-derived escrow account on-chain and released, refunded, or split via Solana transactions. There are no authorization holds or tiered charge methods — the full SNIPP amount is locked on-chain at creation time. Platform fees are deducted on-chain at payout.

How Escrow Works

When a creator publishes a bounty, the reward amount is collected or reserved via Stripe based on the bounty amount:

Bounty Amount Escrow Method What Happens
$5 – $100 Authorization hold A hold is placed on the creator's card. No charge until the bounty is completed. The hold expires after 7 days and is automatically renewed.
$100 – $1,000 Platform charge The full amount is charged immediately and held by the platform until completion or refund.
$1,000 – $10,000 Deposit + deferred A 25% deposit is charged immediately. A SetupIntent stores the payment method for charging the remaining 75% upon completion.

Platform Fee

A platform commission is deducted from the bounty reward before the hunter receives payment:

Plan Commission Rate
Free / Standard 15%
Pro 10%

For example, on a $100 bounty with a 15% fee:

  • Platform fee: $15
  • Hunter receives: $85

Refunds

  • Cancelled bounties are fully refunded to the creator's payment method.
  • Authorization holds are released (no charge).
  • Platform charges are refunded in full.
  • Deposit + deferred bounties refund the 25% deposit.

Payment Failures

If the creator's payment method fails (insufficient funds, declined card, etc.):

  • The bounty is marked as Payment Failed and is not visible to other users.
  • The creator can retry with a different payment method.

Collecting Your Payout (Hunters)

To receive bounty payments, hunters must have a Stripe Connect account linked to their marketplace publisher account.

Setting Up Stripe Connect

  1. Go to Settings > Payments (or Dashboard > Settings).
  2. Click Connect with Stripe to start the Stripe Connect onboarding flow.
  3. Complete the Stripe verification process:
    • Provide your personal or business information.
    • Add a bank account or debit card for receiving payouts.
    • Verify your identity as required by Stripe.
  4. Once your Stripe Connect account is approved (charges_enabled and payouts_enabled), you can receive bounty payouts.

How Payouts Work

When a creator approves your work and marks a bounty as Completed:

  1. The platform captures the escrowed funds.
  2. The platform fee is deducted (15% standard, 10% for Pro).
  3. The remaining amount is transferred to your Stripe Connect account via a Stripe Transfer.
  4. Stripe pays out to your linked bank account or debit card according to your payout schedule (typically 2 business days).

Payout Readiness

  • When you claim a bounty, the system checks if your Stripe Connect account is set up and ready for payouts.
  • If your account is not ready, you will see a warning message — you can still claim and work on the bounty, but you must complete Stripe onboarding before the payout can be processed.
  • If your Stripe Connect account is not ready when the creator completes the bounty, the payout is deferred until your account is activated. You will not lose the payment.

Payout Timeline

Event Timing
Creator marks complete Immediate capture + transfer
Transfer to Stripe Connect Instant (within seconds)
Stripe to your bank 2 business days (standard)

Bounty Modes

Standard Mode (Default)

  • The creator posts a fixed reward.
  • The first hunter to claim the bounty gets the job.
  • Simple, fast, first-come-first-served.

Bid Mode

Bid mode lets hunters submit proposals with their own price and timeline. The creator reviews bids and selects a winner.

How it works:

  1. Creator publishes a bounty in Bid mode with a suggested budget and optional bid deadline.
  2. Hunters browse bid-mode bounties (status: Accepting Bids) and submit proposals:
    • Bid amount — How much the hunter would charge (min $5.00).
    • Description — What the hunter will deliver and how.
    • Estimated days — How long the hunter expects the work to take.
  3. Creator reviews all bids, compares proposals, and selects a winner.
  4. When a bid is selected:
    • The bounty amount is updated to the winning bid amount.
    • The winning bidder is assigned as the claimer.
    • Other bids are automatically rejected.
    • A work deadline is set based on the winning bid's estimated days.
  5. From this point, the standard flow continues: the hunter submits work, the creator reviews and completes.

Withdrawing a bid: Hunters can withdraw pending bids at any time before the creator selects a winner.

Work Deadlines

When creating a bounty, creators set a work deadline — the number of days a hunter has to submit their work after claiming.

  • Range: 3 to 90 days (default: 14 days).
  • Starts on claim: The deadline clock starts when a hunter claims the bounty.
  • Auto-release: If the deadline passes without a submission, the claim is automatically released and the bounty returns to Open (or Accepting Bids for bid-mode bounties).

This prevents bounties from being held indefinitely by hunters who claim but never deliver.

Submission Rejection

Creators can reject a submission if the work does not meet the bounty requirements:

  1. Open the bounty detail panel while the bounty is In Progress.
  2. Click Reject and provide a reason explaining what needs to be fixed.
  3. The bounty returns to Claimed status and the hunter can revise and resubmit.

Rejection limits:

  • A bounty can be rejected up to 3 times.
  • After 3 rejections, the creator must either complete the bounty or open a dispute.
  • Each rejection reason is logged in the bounty activity history.

Disputes

If a creator and hunter cannot agree on whether work meets requirements, either party can open a dispute. Disputes are separate from the tiered cancellation system — cancellation is initiated by the creator before work is submitted, while disputes arise after work has been submitted or completed.

Opening a Dispute

Disputes can be opened when the bounty is in Claimed, In Progress, or Completed status (within 7 days of completion).

  1. Open the bounty detail panel.
  2. Click Open Dispute.
  3. Select a reason:
    • Incomplete work
    • Wrong deliverable
    • Non-responsive (other party stopped communicating)
    • Scope change
    • Payment issue
    • Other
  4. Provide a description of the issue.
  5. The bounty status changes to Disputed and a 14-day resolution deadline begins.

Dispute Messages

Both parties can exchange messages within the dispute to try to reach resolution:

  • Messages support text and optional attachment URLs.
  • All messages are visible to both parties.
  • Messages can be added while the dispute is Open or Under Review.

Resolution

Disputes can be resolved as:

  • Resolved for Creator — Funds are returned to the creator.
  • Resolved for Claimer — Funds are released to the hunter.
  • Resolved Split — Funds are split between the parties (e.g., 50/50).

Note: For SNIPP bounties, dispute resolution triggers on-chain escrow instructions (release, refund, or proportional split) rather than Stripe transfers. The resolution flow is otherwise identical.

Ratings

After a bounty is completed, both the creator and hunter can rate each other.

How Ratings Work

  • Creator rates hunter — Score the hunter on the quality of their work, communication, and timeliness.
  • Hunter rates creator — Score the creator on the clarity of requirements, communication, and prompt review.

Each rating includes:

  • Overall score (1–5 stars, required)
  • Communication (1–5, optional)
  • Quality (1–5, optional)
  • Timeliness (1–5, optional)
  • Comment (optional, up to 1000 characters)

Ratings are aggregated on each publisher's profile and affect their bounty reputation scores.

When Can You Rate?

  • Ratings can only be submitted for completed bounties.
  • Each party can submit one rating per bounty.
  • Ratings are permanent and cannot be edited after submission.

Bounty Lifecycle

Every bounty follows a defined status progression:

                    ┌──────────────────┐
                    │      Open        │
                    │ (or Accepting    │
                    │     Bids)        │
                    └────────┬─────────┘
                             │
              ┌──────────────┼──────────────┐
              │              │              │
              v              v              v
        ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐
        │ Claimed  │  │Cancelled │  │ Expired  │
        └────┬─────┘  └──────────┘  └──────────┘
             │              ^
             │              │
             ├──────────────┤ (Tier 1: simple cancel)
             │              │ (Tier 2: mutual cancel accepted)
             │              │
             ├────────> ┌────────────┐
             │          │Cancelling  │ (Tier 3: force cancel)
             │          └─────┬──────┘
             │                │
             │          ┌─────┴──────┐
             │          │            │
             │          v            v
             │    ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐
             │    │Cancelled │ │   Hold   │ (AI can't assess → blind bidding)
             │    │(split)   │ └────┬─────┘
             │    └──────────┘      │
             │                      v
             │                ┌──────────┐
             │                │Cancelled │ (after bidding resolves)
             │                │(split)   │
             │                └──────────┘
             v
        ┌──────────────┐     ┌───────────┐
        │ In Progress  │────>│ Rejected  │───> (back to Claimed)
        └──────┬───────┘     └───────────┘
               │
        ┌──────┴──────┐
        │             │
        v             v
  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐
  │Completed │  │ Disputed │
  └──────────┘  └──────────┘
Status Description
Open Bounty is published and available for hunters to claim.
Accepting Bids Bid-mode bounty is collecting proposals from hunters.
Claimed A hunter has claimed the bounty and is working on it.
In Progress The hunter has submitted their work for review.
Completed The creator approved the work and the escrowed payment has been released to the hunter.
Disputed A dispute has been opened by either the creator or hunter.
Cancelling A Tier 3 force cancellation has been initiated. The hunter has 24 hours to upload WIP.
Hold The AI audit could not assess the WIP. Both parties enter blind compensation bidding.
Cancelled The bounty has been cancelled. Escrowed funds are refunded or split proportionally depending on the cancellation tier.
Expired The bounty passed its expiration date without being claimed.
Payment Failed The creator's payment method failed. Not visible to other users.

Categories and Tags

Categories

Choose the category that best describes your bounty:

Category Use For
Feature New functionality, capabilities, or enhancements.
Bug Fix Fixing broken behavior, errors, or regressions.
Documentation Writing guides, tutorials, API docs, or README updates.
Integration Connecting with third-party services, APIs, or platforms.
Tooling Build tools, developer utilities, CI/CD improvements.
Other Anything that does not fit the above categories.

Tags

Tags help hunters discover bounties by technology, skill, or topic. You can add up to 10 tags per bounty. Examples: python, react, api, testing, performance, security, typescript, database.

Tips and Best Practices

For Creators

  • Write clear acceptance criteria — Spell out exactly what "done" looks like so there is no ambiguity.
  • Set appropriate rewards — Higher rewards attract more hunters and faster completion. Consider the complexity and time investment required.
  • Use tags effectively — Add technology-specific tags so the right hunters can find your bounty.
  • Set reasonable expiration dates — 30 to 60 days is typical for most bounties. Very short deadlines may discourage hunters.
  • Set reasonable work deadlines — 14 days is the default. Complex bounties may need 30–60 days. Very short deadlines may lead to rushed work.
  • Link to a package — If the bounty is for a specific package improvement, linking it helps provide context.
  • Respond promptly — When a hunter submits work, review it promptly. Slow reviews discourage hunters from claiming future bounties.
  • Consider bid mode for complex or high-value bounties — letting hunters propose their own approach and timeline leads to better outcomes.
  • Rate your hunters — After completing a bounty, rate the hunter to help build the community's trust and reputation system.

For Hunters

  • Set up Stripe Connect early — Complete your Stripe onboarding before claiming bounties so payments can be processed immediately.
  • Read the full description — Understand all requirements before claiming. Ask questions if anything is unclear.
  • Claim only what you can complete — Claiming prevents others from working on the bounty, so only claim if you intend to deliver.
  • Watch your work deadline — Submit before the deadline expires or your claim will be automatically released.
  • Submit clear deliverables — Provide a well-organized submission URL (clean PR, documented repo, etc.) to make the review process smooth.
  • Check expiration dates — Ensure you have enough time to complete the work before the bounty expires.
  • Use bid mode strategically — For bid-mode bounties, write a compelling proposal that explains your approach and why you are the right person for the job.
  • Rate your creators — After receiving payment, rate the creator to help other hunters know what to expect.