BitResolve: Bitcoin-Native Dispute Resolution for FOSS Bounties

• "Free, open-source software (FOSS) development is largely funded through grants, sponsorships and donations to individuals for work on specific projects, or through ad hoc "bounties" that promise payment for a requested solution, feature, or project."
• "One problem with this system is that grantors and donors have complete discretion over payment."
• "Another problem with the current system is that grantors can have an outsized influence on the direction of open-source development."
• "Finally, grantors and donors must engage in a time-consuming and sometimes challenging due diligence process to determine whether the developers have built a solution that meets the bounty or grant's criteria."

"As a solution to these problems, we can transfer review of bounty applications to a bitcoin-native dispute resolution system. A panel of experienced, independent, third-party reviewers are selected by a coordinator to adjudicate whether a bounty's criteria has been met by the applicant."

• "The review panel serves as an oracle to trigger release of the grant funds from a bitcoin-native, non-custodial escrow."
• "Grantors contemporaneously fund the escrow when posting bounties to a public bulletin board."

• "By outsourcing bounty review to a panel of third-party neutrals that trigger automatic payment, we can eliminate donor discretion and provide assurances to developers that they will be compensated for compliant work product."
• "Donors are spared the time, cost, and effort of reviewing applications. And by removing this barrier to entry, anyone with access to the Bounty Board and a bitcoin wallet can create bounties or fund existing ones, thereby decentralizing funding sources."
• "Finally, developers serving as neutral Reviewers can be compensated for review work that they may have been doing already on a volunteer basis."

GitHub Repo