With bounty programs (sometimes called bounty campaigns), project owners seek out members of the crypto community to promote and raise awareness on their new project (as well as the accompanying ICO, usually), rewarding them with bounties. These bounties are generally paid in the form of the project’s own tokens but can also be in the form of other cryptocurrencies or other benefits.
You might have noticed the term “bounty hunters” being used in crypto communities to describe people who often seek out bounty programs, performing the tasks required and earning rewards for completing them. Not unlike the bounty hunters of popular fiction, except they all do it from behind their computer screens and there’s no bad guy to catch!
So what tasks do these bounty hunters do?
Unlike their predecessors described in the section above, bounties here are a lot less complex. Bounties in these kinds of programs are just small tasks or jobs created by ICO and project owners specifically to help raise awareness of the ICO or to promote token usage and adoption.
Luckily for the bounty hunter, these tasks generally need very little beyond basic computer knowledge. Of course, being a bit more technically gifted can help you complete tasks to a higher quality, possibly earning better rewards (we’ll take a closer look at how in another section).
These days, bounty programs focus heavily on social media promotion and content creation – you’ll recall that the aim, after all, is to promote the ICO or new project to as many new people as possible.
Ranging from the simplest of tasks such as re-Tweeting an offical post from the ICO’s Twitter to slightly more engaging tasks such as writing a blog post about the project or ICO, almost anyone with basic computer knowledge and a social media following can be a bounty hunter.
Because they don’t take up much time and don’t require you to detract from your normal online activities on social media, participating in bounty programs can be an enjoyable learning experience in itself.
How much can bounty hunters earn?
The profitability of bounty campaigns can be a subjective issue and, just like any investment of time and effort into the emerging crypto industry, can be a mix of risk and reward.
Some bounties pay out in recognised cryptocurrency, typically Bitcoin or Ethereum. This is usually the least risky option, since you already know the value of the reward and can reliably estimate how much you can get paid for participating in bounty programs and completing tasks.
More commonly these days, though, ICOs that are launching a new coin or token set aside a small portion of its total token/coin supply specifically for bounty programs (this is sometimes classified as marketing). In these programs, bounty hunters earn the ICO tokens or project tokens.
Because the value of these tokens are seldom known before they are available for trade on exchanges, they could be perceived as riskier options for rewards. This is because the rewards could end up worth little should the project fail to launch or the tokens never reach their projected success.
On the other hand, if the project were to become successful in the future, as has been the case with many launched via ICOs, then the bounties (in ICO tokens) can be potentially worth a lot more. This strategy of earning ICO tokens as bounty rewards in the hopes of them appreciating in value later on has seen many a shrewd bounty hunter obtain significant holdings of valuable tokens – without ever actually purchasing any of them.
At AmaZix, we’re proud to work with some of the most rewarding bounty programs out there, as well as with some of the most notable social media influencers active in the crypto sphere.
Curious to know what types of tasks bounty hunters do? Onwards to Part 4: Types of Bounties and How They Work