In the mind of a cryptocurrency bounty hunter.

You are probably missing out on a gold rush in an invisible gig economy. And no, you don’t have to be a techie to join.

Cryptocurrency bounty hunting can take many forms. From obscure stories about the darknet, to honest people that make a living by finding security vulnerabilities or doing simple marketing tasks. Fact is, Bounty Hunting has become a core component of the cryptocurrency community and is being leveraged by exchanges, established companies and start-ups.

What is a bounty hunter?

In the “Old West”, a bounty hunter was a person that captured fugitives and criminals for a reward. Today, bounty hunters perform software development, marketing, consulting and creative tasks.

A platform, a community… and of course, rewards

Bounty0x was created with the aim of becoming the most user friendly and trustworthy cryptocurrency bounty hunting platform out there. The Bounty0x Alpha platform already has +25,000 active bounty hunters and has hosted +$7M worth of bounties since its launch. The Beta platform, which will expand on the existing features and finally incorporate the BNTY utility token, is going live on July 9th, 2018.

Over the past couple weeks, we have been receiving several DM’s from Bounty Hunters that are earning a living from Bounty0x. A large portion of the users that got in touch with us are from third world countries, where an additional $500 a month could have a life-changing impact.

According to WorldData, the average monthly income in countries like Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Nepal is less than $172.

In response to this, we decided to interview some of our users to learn about their backgrounds and motivations. Below are three questions taken from the interview that we conducted. We will be releasing more in future articles.

Tell us about your background. When did you get started in the cryptocurrency world, and why?

“I’m nurse by profession, a psychologist and a social media addict. I got into the crypto world earlier this year after a friend introduced me to an interesting project.”

— Celestina (Tinakoya)

What made you start with Cryptocurrency Bounty Hunting?

“I started trading cryptocurrency on December 23, 2017 (ATH/bull month) I was doing so much better than I could have ever imagined, it was surreal. Then January comes and the market starts to tank, at the end of the month I was at a very deep loss. After doing a bit of research, I stumbled among people that were in a similar situation as I was, and they suggested I should start doing cryptocurrency bounties. I joined every platform, group and forum I could to learn more, and well, here I am :).”

— Chiqui (Jo)

Do you have any advice for other people planning to get started with Bounty Hunting?

“Completing a cryptocurrency bounty is completely different from doing regular freelance work. There are countless bounties out there posted by people that will never pay you, or where the compensation is sent in the form of a worthless coin or token. A big part of the job is making sure that you are working for somebody that isn’t trying to scam you.”

— Amirah (Amirah)

Improving the blockchain space, one bounty at a time

Right before its mainnet launch, blockchain platform EOS launched a bug bounty that rewards $10k for every critical vulnerability found in their software. In less than 7 days, one Bounty Hunter found 12 “epic vulnerabilities”, netting him a cool $120k and potentially avoiding a complete disaster.

Bounties fill a gap that traditional freelancing can’t.

Freelance work is usually concentrated on a very individual approach where one worker is employed to complete one specific task, the goal of bounties is to incentivize large crowds towards the completion of a common goal. This unique aspect makes bounties ideal for auditing code, growing communities and improving products.

Getting started

Aside from software development related tasks, the barrier of entry for most bounties in the cryptocurrency space is fairly low. Some of the most popular tasks are writing articles, sharing content on social media or making educational videos on YouTube.

Getting started can be as simple as signing-up on a bounty hunting platform, like Bounty0x, or a forum like Bitcointalk. Decent knowledge about the cryptocurrency space is a must, of course, and it often helps to have good english skills.

All in all, the combination of a growing demand for bounty hunters, especially from blockchain start-ups, and the volatile nature of crypto assets make cryptocurrency bounty hunting an extremely wild, thrilling and potentially also very profitable ride.