Product Overview

The Polkadot Bounty Application Review System is a decentralised funding and task management mechanism within the Polkadot ecosystem, designed to incentivise and manage community-driven work that benefits the ecosystem in areas like development, marketing, education, events, and more^1,2,3.

How the System Works

• Bounty Creation: Anyone who holds the minimum amount of DOT can propose a new bounty through Polkadot's OpenGov. A bounty proposal must include a detailed task description, budget, duration, and suggested curators (specialists who manage and evaluate bounty tasks). The proposal is then submitted for community approval, usually via a referendum^1,4.

• Bounty Approval and Funding: Once the community (through OpenGov) approves the proposal, funds are allocated to the bounty and controlled by the approved curators^1,2,4.

• Application Process: Community members interested in completing a bounty can browse active bounties on platforms like Polkassembly or Subsquare. Interested applicants must contact the curators and submit a brief proposal describing the task they will accomplish, their approach, and the anticipated impact. Sometimes, child bounties are issued to fund specific parts of the main bounty^1,2.

• Review and Milestones: Curators review submitted applications, manage milestone-based payments, and provide guidance. Successful completion of the proposed work, usually evidenced by documentation, deliverables, or results could results in the release of rewards to the applicant. Curators ensure that the work meets quality expectations and the requirements specified in the bounty^1,3,5.

• Transparency: All steps and proposals are recorded on-chain for funds and off-chain (through platforms like Polkassembly) for detailed documentation, ensuring transparency and decentralised oversight^2,4,6.

Key Features

• Curators: Experts who manage and oversee the progress of the bounty, review work submissions, and approve payments.

• Open Participation: Anyone with the necessary skills can apply for bounties, encouraging wide community involvement.

• Milestone Payments: Tasks may be structured to allow for partial payments on completion of specific milestones.

• Public Oversight: Both bounty creation and curation are subject to community approval and scrutiny, fostering trust and accountability through OpenGov^1,2,4.

Utility

The system decentralises work, accelerates collaboration, and encourages high-quality contributions by involving specialists in task review and reward distribution. It also makes treasury management more responsive by tying payments directly to the completion of valuable tasks for the Polkadot network^1,2,3.

For those looking to apply or participate, details about active bounties and guidelines are openly available on community platforms such as Polkassembly, Subsquare, and the DotLake Dashboards^1,2,6.

References:

1. Polkadot (2025) Polkadot OpenGov: How to Participate in Bounties. Available at: https://support.polkadot.network/support/solutions/articles/65000190065-polkadot-opengov-how-to-participate-in-bounties (Accessed: 29 July 2025).

2. Polkadot Handbook (2025) Bounties. Available at: https://polkadothandbook.com/ecosystem/bounties (Accessed: 29 July 2025).

3. Polkadot (2025) Bounty/bounties. Available at: https://polkadot.com/glossary/bounties/ (Accessed: 29 July 2025).

4. Polkadot Wiki (2025) Bounties. Available at: https://wiki.polkadot.com/learn/learn-guides-bounties/ (Accessed: 29 July 2025).

5. PolkadotPlay GitHub (2025) PolkadotPlat / Games Bounty. Available at: https://github.com/PolkadotPlay/GamesBounty (Accessed: 29 July 2025).

6. Polkadot (2025) DotLake OpenGov Report - Bounties. Available at: https://data.parity.io/opengov-report?tab=bounties&info-tab=bounties&chart-tab=chart_opengov_repor t_polkadot_bounty_tracker (Accessed: 29 July 2025).