Smart contract platforms to pay developers automagically through Gi...

Introduction

Git - the version control system which is in a way decentralized by itself, pair it with smart contracts to release funds when certain milestones in the development of a software project are reached.

Utopian.io revolutionized voting on software project hosted on GitHub by combining Steem with Github. But as far as I see you still can't pay individual developers by their code contributions or support QA aka bug-hunters and bug fixers by way of having bounties in smart contract form.

Nice GUI to propose projects but I don't see Git integration

Building functionality

Building platforms and I think even GitHub itself can mark if a project builds. That's a good first step to ensure the code build actually builds but that doesn't cover functionality.

Functions you want your software to perform are usually written down in a document called Project Specification or RFC as in Request for Comments on infrastructure the internet. You can also have automated test which you can write in advance and when run you get a "passed/failed". When a piece of the software you are writing gets implemented you could be paid by smart contract automagically!

Escrow for work

Imagine that you as an investor or developer propose a project where most of the funds from your ICO or other form of funds collection get locked up in a smart contract until certain building milestones are met and developers get paid. Developers have also certainty that there is enough money and thus can trust that the project owners don't leave in an exit scam with all the funds. Of course this applies to (public) share holders or investors as well. Because through methods like ICO's we the people can actually invest directly in projects.

FundRequest

an integrated platform to fund open source projects, thus financially incentivising the open source community. The platform allows developers to fix bugs or to program additional features for an existing application.

FundRequest will be developed on the Ethereum Blockchain.

Example: Stocks worthless after nationalization

On the 1st of February 2013 the minister of Finance Jeroen Dijselbloem nationalized [SNS Reaal] and so the holders of SNS Reaal where holding worthless stock. This serves as a reminder on how fragile centralized systems really are. GitHub is a company and there are fortunately many options for having Git - the technology which is quite decentralized all by itself, on a blockchain or IPFS.

Projects which implement decentralized Git version control today

http://gitchain.org/ - Which started on or around Sept. 2014 on KickStarter didn't get enough funding allthough on Kickstart itself it was somewhere around $11k.
Mango, which combines Ethereum with IPFS or Swarm as a backend for Git. This project which should run on Ethereum obviously after witnessing the CryptoKitties fiasco is not really feasibile in the long term. Also who wants to pay gas for each commit?

Automated pay-outs / smart contract platforms

Blocklancer freelancers get paid

The Vault Contract: Open Sourced by Giveth gives a nice overview of what you'd like to have in features paying out developers semi-automatically. I'll list a few which I find beneficial and which are obvious on first sight:

approved spenders = project managers which can give the signal to release funds after a manual check of feature implementation
Time-Based Failsafes you might want to wait a while before pay-out, it takes a while before something gets implemented with this you eliminate developers running away from a project too soon.
securityGuard: The account/contract (ideally one account given to several trusted individuals) given the power to delay payments in the case of payment disputes

There are several ideas already of course but I could find a ready to use implementation. Some notable excerpts:

"escrow smart contract" service which would protect developers and clients.
Would make paying freelancers in a different country much easier
fixed price contracts
milestone payments

Pick talents from a reputable (blockchain) source

Of course for developers the incentive to not only host their work in a decentralized manner, any dispute that their code is theirs would be much easier to solve on the blockchain. Since all a blockchain does is time-stamp and sign data on a distributed ledger which cannot be altered, only added to, developers can build a reputation and even mistakes are the best way to learn. Hands on experience is invaluable.

Employers can verify that a developer is who (s)he says (s)he is and see their work.

Smart contract platforms to pay developers automagically through Git