Bountysource


Bountysource is a website for open source bounties and since 2012 also for crowdfunding. Users can pledge money for tasks using micropayment services that open source software developers can pick up and solve to earn the money. It also allows large-scale fundraising for big improvements on the project. It integrates with GitHub using its bug tracker to check if the problem is resolved and connect the resolution with GitHub's pull request system to identify the patch. When the users agree that they are satisfied and the project maintainer merged the proposed changes to the source-code, Bountysource will transfer the money acting as a trustee during the whole process.

History

Bountysource was started in the 2000s and by May 8, 2006, had integrated a new custom-built SVN browser into the system. On May 11, 2006, Bountysource released their SVN browser, titled bsSvnBrowser, under the GNU General Public License. The initial idea was to open-source more portions of Bountysource as time went on and the code matured to be a true Open Source alternative to the proprietary SourceForge.net. The website was originally written in PHP, but as of March 18, 2006 it switched to Ruby on Rails. Development on Bountysource was stopped in March 2008.
It relaunched as a service using the GitHub-API in 2012 to focus on being a trustee for software development bounties that are collected through PayPal, Bitcoin, and other methods.